Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz signed an executive order on Aug. 18 barring state agencies from advancing copper and nickel mining projects in the watershed that feeds the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, four months after Congress voted to repeal a 20-year federal ban on mining in the same region.
Executive Order 26-10 from the Democratic governor directs the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency to stop all permitting and environmental review work on nonferrous mining proposals in the Rainy River Headwaters Watershed until a pending state lawsuit, Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness v. DNR, is resolved.
Nonferrous mining refers to metals other than iron, including the copper and nickel deposits that run through northeastern Minnesota….Â
Minnesota Gov. Walz Blocks Boundary Waters Mining That Congress Voted to Allow
