FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact: Libby London (612) 227-8407
July 31, 2025
(Washington, D.C.) – Today, the Department of the Interior Deputy Secretary Kate McGregor tweeted that the Interior Department would be reversing the 2022 M-Opinion, which found that Twin Metals’ federal mineral leases were re-issued unlawfully in 2019.
Ingrid Lyons, Executive Director of Save the Boundary Waters, stated:
“Announcing major legal and environmental decisions about America’s most beloved Wilderness over Twitter is reckless. Reinstating leases that were already ruled unlawful is even worse. This isn’t policy—it’s the Trump Administration once again choosing a Chilean billionaire over the people of Minnesota and the United States. The laws haven’t changed, and frankly, neither has the Administration’s playbook: billionaires win, everyone else pays the price, and America’s public lands are sold to the highest bidder.”
McGregor’s tweet said:
Background:
70 percent of Minnesotans support permanent protection of the Boundary Waters. Since 2016, 675,000 Americans have commented in favor of protecting the watershed of the Boundary Waters from copper mining. 56% of Minnesotans in Minnesota’s Congressional District 8 (Rep. Stauber) oppose copper mining near the Boundary Waters.
The Boundary Waters isn’t just a Minnesota issue—it’s a national one. Millions of people cherish this place, 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 was 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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