The green economy creates a tug-of-war in Northeast Minnesota, where companies seeking mining rights for critical minerals challenge those trying to protect pristine waterways.
By Christina Lee MacGillivray
Published July 7, 2022
Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, the most visited wilderness area in the country, is known for its pristine interconnected waterways. In early 2022, the Biden administration announced a 20-year ban on mining copper, nickel and other metals near the area.
China dominates processing of selected minerals
After minerals are extracted they must be processed into a form that can be used in manufacturing. The Biden Administration has prioritized securing more reliable processing capacity within the United States and finding partners amongst its allies.
Minerals used in electric cars compared with conventional cars
The Biden Administration has set a target of 50% electric vehicle sale shares in the U.S. by 2030. Where these minerals come from, how they are processed and if the U.S. can have secure supply chains to meet this ambitious agenda is at the center of the debate around renewable energy.
Biden gives hope to defenders of the Boundary Waters as Chilean mining giant seeks copper, nickel
But electric vehicle agenda means U.S. needs more of precious metals found in northeastern Minnesota
By Christina Lee MacGillivray
Published March 16, 2021
Grand Marais, MN — In Minnesota’s northernmost wilderness, full time resident Dave Seaton knows how to rescue a 600-pound moose if it falls through frozen lake ice: Get a team together, haul two canoes on either side of the animal and toss canoe straps around the moose to help it ease its legs to the ice surface. He should know. He’s done it.
What Seaton is less familiar with is how to lobby Congress. And sue the Department of the Interior. But he’s learning because he’s trying the save the wilderness that he loves from copper and nickel mining.
“As a general rule, I try to avoid any public thing,” he said laughing. “It’s why I live in the woods.”
Sulfide mining advocates say they’ll deliver jobs, but how many?
The Boundary Waters and surrounding Superior National Forest are home to 20% of the freshwater in the national forest system. Critical mineral mining has resurrected the generational debate on the direction of job growth in the region.
By Christina Lee MacGillivray
Published July 8, 2021
The late Gov. Rudy Perpich, the favorite son of the Iron Range, coined the phrase, “jobs, jobs, jobs” in response to the downturn in the mining economy in the 1980s. It’s been the dominant theme of politics in northeastern Minnesota ever since.
And it’s driving debate about two controversial copper-nickel mines proposed in the Duluth Complex, home to large undeveloped deposits of copper, nickel, cobalt and other critical minerals.
These metals are key components in green technologies, including solar, wind and electric vehicles.
After years of a shrinking iron ore industry, mining advocates say the projects would bring back hundreds of jobs to the region and thousands of spin-off jobs in health care, manufacturing and retail. Polymet, which remains immersed in a permitting battle over its planned mine at the old LTV taconite site, estimates the project once completed would produce 360 mining, engineering, mechanical and other professional jobs. Twin Metals Minnesota said it will create more than 750 long-term jobs during the period of operation.