WASHINGTON – The Biden Administration cancelled mineral leases for a giant copper-nickel mine proposed on the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in northeast Minnesota. The U.S. Interior Department declared that permits issued by the Trump Administration were illegal. The mine, near Ely, has been a tennis ball batted back and forth between pro-mining and pro-environmental interests. Ojibwe tribes have opposed the mine consistently. Former President Barack Obama canceled the leases and then the Trump administration issued a controversial legal analysis, reinstating the leases. Now the Trump reversal has been reversed. The Swiss-based and Argentine-controlled PolyMet, which also operates as Twin Metals and as NorthMet, had anticipated the Biden denial and pre-emptively promised a new legal challenge.
Earlier: PolyMet vows to fight Biden order delay