Congressional approval of mining in Boundary Waters causes concern

To the Editor:

On April 16, the Republican led Senate decided that what lies below the Boundary Waters Canoe Area watershed in Minnesota’s Superior National Forest is more important than the over 150,000 people who visit there each year and the area residents who benefit from the millions of dollars these visitors inject annually into their economy. This area, the most visited wilderness region in the United States, offers affordable and particularly memorable vacations for regular people, friends and families, who enjoy and value the undeveloped outdoors.

Below this special wilderness area lies a massive copper and nickel deposit and our Republican elected officials wish to hand mining permission to Twin Metals, a company owned by a larger mining conglomerate in Chile.

There is a fast increasing global demand for copper to serve developing technology, some of which is beneficial for us. There are also at least an estimated 250 unmined copper sites throughout the world. No mining is without environmental risk, but the Boundary Waters and surrounding area has been declared among the top regions that would suffer devastating and irreversible damage from copper sulfide mining. Its thousands of lakes, streams, rivers and thus its entire ecosystem would be at risk.

On top of this threat the economic gain for the U.S. is in question since China is Chile’s top trading partner, and it is likely the mined raw copper would be sold by the Chilean company to China for processing and refining. The U.S. buys close to 50 percent of its refined copper from Chile. So it is entirely possible that the copper mined in the U.S. Boundary Waters watershed would be sold by a Chile owned company to China, processed in China, sold back to Chile and then sold to the U.S. 

Fortunately, before Chilean owned Twin Metals can begin drilling in our treasured wilderness area, they will need federal approvals and over 15 state permits. Along with anticipated court cases opposing the drilling, this means it might be several years before mining can begin. So there is time for regular people through their voices and votes to reverse this thoughtless, potentially very damaging Congressional action. 

Jean Fisher

Wausau