The Interior Department on Thursday issued a 20-year mining moratorium for over 225,000 acres of federal land in northeastern Minnesota that had been eyed for a potential copper and nickel mine.
The public land order signed by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland withdrew the area, which is upstream from the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, from consideration for leasing under federal laws. The move came after the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service evaluated the environmental impacts of mineral development in the region.
“The Department of the Interior takes seriously our obligations to steward public lands and waters on behalf of all Americans,” Haaland said in a statement. “Protecting a place like Boundary Waters is key to supporting the health of the watershed and its surrounding wildlife, upholding our Tribal trust and treaty responsibilities, and boosting the local recreation economy.”
