FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Date: August 18, 2026
Contact: Libby London, 612-227-8407, Libby@SavetheBoundaryWaters.org
Governor Walz issues Executive Order that blocks copper mining projects in the headwaters of the Boundary Waters and calls for protective legislation
[Ely, MN] - Today, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz issued Executive Order 26-10, which advances important state-level protections for the Boundary Waters watershed from the threat of sulfide-ore copper mining. This follows the passage of HJ Resolution 140 in April, which inappropriately used the Congressional Review Act to overturn protections for the Boundary Waters watershed. The Executive Order includes the following six directives:
- Freezes state environmental review and permitting by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the Minnesota Pollution Agency for any new sulfide-ore copper mining proposals in the watershed, until a pending legal challenge to the state's own outdated mining rules is fully resolved and subsequent rulemaking is completed.
- Cuts off state cooperation with any federal environmental review of any sulfide-ore mine proposals in the watershed.
- Stops new state mineral leases and new state surface leases for sulfide-ore copper mining activities, including for disposal or storage of tailings or other waste materials, in the watershed.
- Directs agencies to strictly scrutinize state sulfide-ore copper mining leases in the watershed and to enforce compliance with lease terms to the fullest extent the law allows.
- Directs the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources to draft legislation that would permanently ban sulfide-ore copper mining in the watershed.
In summary, under this Executive Order, sulfide-ore copper mining will not get a start in the Boundary Waters watershed until after litigation and rulemaking occur, existing leaseholders are on notice, and the Legislature will be asked to make protection from sulfide-ore copper mining permanent.
Save the Boundary Waters Executive Director Ingrid Lyons issued the following statement:
"Governor Walz just stood up for Minnesota, for Minnesotans, and for the Boundary Waters. The Federal Government sold out our canoe country earlier this year by stripping away protections that took hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans' voices and years of work to secure, all while ignoring science and the will of the public. Tribal nations weren't even in the room.
Now, our Governor is doing right by Minnesota by pulling out all of the stops to keep toxic copper mining out of the headwaters of the Boundary Waters, while also calling on our state's legislature to finish the job permanently. Thank you, Governor, for your actions that save the Boundary Waters today, and for building a foundation from which to protect it for generations to come."
Paul Schurke, co-owner of Wintergreen Dogsled Lodge based in Ely, Minnesota, said: "Despite these challenging times, I've never been more proud to be a Minnesotan. Thanks to our Boundary Waters champion, Governor Walz, we'll protect one of our nation's most pristine and precious places."
Background
In 2023, the federal government withdrew 225,504 acres of federal land and minerals in the watershed from the federal mineral leasing program for 20 years in what’s called a Mineral Withdrawal. The federal government followed a fair and comprehensive process that ran 454 days, included eight public listening sessions, drew nearly 675,000 public comments in favor of a 20-year ban, and rested on 22 separate scientific resource reports. The U.S. Forest Service's own analysis found that a sulfide-ore copper mine in the watershed could cause extreme and irreparable harm.
This spring, Congress used a fast-track procedural tool called the Congressional Review Act (CRA), a law meant to provide scrutiny to agency actions deemed to be rules. Despite Mineral Withdrawals never having been deemed to be rules subject to scrutiny under the CRA, the Senate voted 50-49 and the House 214-208 to overturn the mining ban. No new public listening sessions were held, no new science was gathered, and the Forest Service's own extreme harm finding wasn't revisited, just discarded. Legal experts called this use of the CRA “extraordinarily legally questionable.”
Minerals mined from a potential copper mine by Antofagasta in the watershed of the Boundary Waters would be sent to China for processing and would not benefit American jobs. Antofagasta has deep ties with state-owned mineral processing operations. Most recently, Antofagasta has secured multiple contracts with state-owned Chinese smelting companies that guarantee the company free processing of its copper.
Across the country, millions of people cherish the Boundary Waters, and it supports a thriving, sustainable outdoor economy. Research shows that copper mining here would be a net job killer, threatening up to 22,000 jobs and up to $1.6 billion in annual income. A vast collection of peer-reviewed science shows that if a Twin Metals mine were built along the rivers and streams flowing into the Wilderness, pollution and environmental degradation would be certain. A peer-reviewed independent study from Harvard University shows that protecting the Boundary Waters from proposed sulfide-ore mining would result in dramatically more jobs and more income over a 20-year period.
A 2017 report by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency describes the waters within the mineral withdrawal area as “immaculate." The Report concludes that "the majority of the waterbodies within this watershed had exceptional biological, chemical, and physical characteristics that are worthy of additional protection."
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