WASHINGTON, DC – Rep. Dean Phillips (MN-03) issued the following statement after Chilean mining conglomerate and owner of Twin Metals, Antofagasta, submitted a plan to the Minnesota DNR detailing its proposal to develop a sulfide-ore copper mine adjacent to Minnesota’s treasured Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness this week.
The plan comes just days after the White House worked to strip a provision, authored by Rep. Betty McCollum (MN-04), from the federal spending agreement which would have required the U.S. Forest Service to complete its study on the risk sulfide-ore copper mining poses to the Boundary Waters. Last year, the Trump Administration cancelled the Forest Service study just before its completion and all information from this taxpayer-funded study is being withheld from the American people.
“This Administration has repeatedly stonewalled reasonable requests from Congress and the American people for more information about the implications of mining near Minnesota’s, and the nation’s, most popular Wilderness. I urge the Trump Administration to complete and publish the study of the potential impact of the Twin Metals mine on our treasured national forest lands and I am proud to join Rep. Betty McCollum and thousands of my constituents in the mission to preserve the Boundary Waters for generations to come.”