With labor unions and environmental groups at odds over the proposed Minnesota Twin Metals copper mining project, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is taking a wait-and-see approach before weighing in.
"We continue to wait for the Department of the Interior,” USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack told Reuters. “They have to issue a legal opinion before we know what direction we need to take."
While an arm of the Agriculture Department controls surface land at the site, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management makes decisions about what minerals are allowed to be extracted.
Earlier this year, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland gave no indication on where the government leans in the debate when questioned at a congressional hearing by U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber, a Minnesota Republican whose district includes the mine site.
The proposed underground mine could serve as a major U.S. copper supplier in President Joe Biden’s drive to build more electric vehicles, which use twice as much of the red metal as those with internal combustion engines, Reuters reported.
While critics of the project argue it would permanently mar the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness on the U.S.-Canada border, Twin Metals is working to assure residents of the project's safety and potential economic impact, the report stated.
When he served as agriculture secretary under President Barack Obama, Vilsack moved to block a similar Twin Metals project, only to see that decision reversed by President Donald Trump.
Earlier this summer, Vilsack said that in arriving at his decision, he was working to balance all the concerns of those who hold an interest in the mine. As it is, Vilsack has the power to block mining in the region for the next two decades, though a bill introduced in the U.S. Congress recently could permanently ban it.
Controlled by Chile's Antofagasta Plc, Twin Metals said in a statement it "looks forward to continuing to constructively engage the administration and advance the environmental review of the project.”
Referred to as an “underground city,” the project would include miles of tunnels which would require dump trucks and large equipment to extract large amounts of material.
