correction
An earlier version of this article incorrectly suggested that mining was proposed inside the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Mining was proposed near the wilderness area. This version also corrects the potential acreage that the Biden administration may protect near the Avi Kwa Ame mountain in Nevada.
The Biden administration is banning mining for 20 years in a giant watershed near Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, the president’s latest effort to deliver on conservation pledges that would shape the future of America’s wild lands.
The move, announced Thursday, extends a temporary decision from a year ago to block copper, nickel and other hard-rock mining that the Trump administration had tried to greenlight near the Canadian border. Officials said they determined the potential toxic leaching from mining would be too threatening to nature, local Native American communities and a growing recreation economy.
