With a U.S. Senate vote looming on copper-nickel mining, this northern Minnesota town hangs in the balance

ELY, Minn. – In this Iron Range city on the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, the local miners hang out at a bar directly across the main drag from the Friends of the Boundary Waters office headquarters. Downtown, flush with canoe outfitters, sits near Miners Lake.

Now a key U.S. Senate vote is looming on the future of mining, and this North Woods town stands to feel a direct impact. Locals on all sides of the decadeslong jobs vs. environment divide are left wondering how the future of their community — and their livelihoods — will fare.

The Senate is expected to vote this week on whether to overturn the Biden administration’s 20-year ban on mining near the Boundary Waters. If passed and signed by President Donald Trump, it could open the area for mining companies to apply for mineral leases.

Most immediately affected would be a proposed copper-nickel mine that some residents argue would bring a necessary economic boost. But environmentalists worry it would pollute the area’s pristine mass of lakes and forests, and affect the local tourism industry. Copper-nickel mining carries different risks than iron mining because the sulfide ores that contain copper and nickel can leach into toxic runoff when exposed to air and water.

Though most local residents have aligned with one side of the debate or the other, many acknowledge nuances in the arguments of both sides. And they also say they believe the fight won’t likely end anytime soon, regardless of the vote’s outcome.

“It’s political volleyball,” Bernie Barich said last week from a stool at Dee’s Bar & Lounge, a storied hangout where a handful of fellow miners lined the bar. “It just keeps flipping back and forth.”

To get to this point, the House passed a resolution by Minnesota’s Republican Rep. Pete Stauber to overturn the Biden moratorium in mid-January.

But the battle goes back much further.

“The original leases were issued over 60 years ago, and the sense I get from the people in Ely is that there is a back and forth that’s been going on for a really long time and this would just be the latest iteration of that back and forth,” said Aaron Kania, a retired forest ranger and DFL candidate for Minnesota House District 3A who held a campaign event last week at Ely’s Historic State Theater.

If passed, the legislation could revive the previously stalled movements of Twin Metals, which is owned by the Chilean mining company Antofagasta. Twin Metals has for years planned an underground copper-nickel mine just south of Ely near Babbitt, Minn.

That doesn’t mean mining would be a sure thing. Twin Metals needs to first prove its plan with state and federal environmental regulators.

That step is missing in the debate, said incumbent Republican state Rep. Roger Skraba.

Twin Metals Minnesota spokeswoman Kathy Graul said in a statement that the moratorium has locked out a domestic source of minerals needed for energy security, jobs and stronger U.S. supply chains.

“Minnesota is fortunate to have both world-class mineral deposits and a stringent regulatory framework that ensures mining projects are held to the highest environmental and labor standards,” she said.

Mining has long been an economic driver in Ely, a town of just more than 3,000 people that booms with visitors in the warmer months. It’s quieter in the winter, with mainly just a few local gathered in bars along Sheridan Street to watch the televised Olympic Games.

Canoes sat untouched last week outside of local business and at Whiteside Park, where the remains of snow sculptures built weeks ago during the town’s winter festival quietly crumbled.

“Living up here is kind of in your blood,” said Barich, a fourth-generation miner who likes to spend his time off fishing.

“Working at the mine pays the best, has the best benefits — very few places would afford you that lifestyle," he said.

Barich and his friends have a hunting cabin on 80 acres close to the Boundary Waters. He said he would like mining to get a “fair shake” to see if it’s feasible without pollution. It’s important for livelihoods, the community and schools, he said, adding that projects should be determined by a permitting process. Emotions should be secondary, he said.

“If I knew the science said it’s going to turn the creek that runs by my shack into the Boundary Waters purple, I don’t want that either,” Barich said. “But we don’t know that at this point. I don’t believe anybody knows that at this point.”

Barich said he was unlikely to encounter anyone who would challenge his take at Dee’s, where he worked his way down the bar naming each patrons’ ties to the mining industry.

Opposing viewpoints were close. Barich pointed across the street at Friends of the Boundary Waters, a nearly 50-year-old organization dedicated to safeguarding the wilderness.

“My perspective is certainly informed by the science of it, which is that it would be irrevocably damaging to the waterways,” Myers said.

At the same time, she said she is sensitive to the reality that some families have lived in the region for several generations and built roots based in mining.

Save the Boundary Waters held a news conference with Ely stakeholders and political leaders on Wednesday, Feb. 18, at the State Capitol. Minnesota’s U.S. Sen. Tina Smith, a Democrat, called for protection for the Boundary Waters and described it as “a million perfect acres of lakes and streams and bogs and forests.”

State Rep. Liish Kozlowski, a DFLer, told those gathered that it’s not a question of if but when the Boundary Waters would become irreversibly polluted.

“It belongs to the public, not to greedy foreign mining corporations,” Kozlowski said.