Twin Metals

Join the Fight to Protect the Boundary Waters Canoe Area from Copper-Sulfide Mining

Water is the lifeblood of the BWCA.

Because the geology of the BWCA is such that it can’t buffer or effectively absorb acid mine drainage, pollution from the Twin Metals’ copper-sulfide mine would spread over two million acres of pristine water, including the Quetico Provincial Park and Voyageurs National Park.

The Chilean-owners have proposed a mine that would tunnel under Birch Lake and the Kawishawi River, which drains directly into the Boundary Waters.

The processing facility, where they would pulverize the ore to extract trace amounts of copper and other metals, and the mountains of reactive waste rock they would produce each day, would all be done at the edge of the BWCA.

It’s not a question of if, but when this mine would pollute.

A Nation-wide Movement

The fight to protect the Boundary Waters has galvanized tens of thousands of Americans and has grown into a nation-wide effort to save this unique wilderness.

The four years of the Trump administration involved a whole-scale rollback of environmental protections and outright favors for foreign conglomerates.

To fast-track their plans to mine near the Boundary Waters and skirt legal barriers, the billionaire owners of Antofagasta bought a mansion in Washington DC, rented it to Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner and put on a full-court press to get the Trump administration to reinstate the expired mineral leases it needed to open its toxic mine.

During the Trump administration, federal agencies worked more as an industry partner rather than a regulator.

In response, Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness sued the Trump administration for giving away public land to Antofagasta. Currently, we have two cases making their way through the federal court system.

Make your voice heard

Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness has introduced a Prove It First bill into the Minnesota legislature that would stop Twin Metals mining in its tracks.

This common-sense piece of legislation would require that before a copper-sulfide mine could be permitted in Minnesota, there must be independent proof that a similar mine has operated for at least ten years without causing pollution and that a mine has been closed for at least ten years without causing pollution.