Walz signs order halting sulfide ore mining outside Minnesota’s Boundary Waters

St. Paul — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz signed an executive order Tuesday directing state agencies to halt permitting and leasing for copper and nickel mining in the watershed that feeds the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. His actions follow a close congressional vote this past spring that stripped long-standing federal protections from the region.

The order instructs the Minnesota DNR and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency to stop all new environmental review and permitting work on nonferrous mining proposals in the Rainy River headwaters watershed until litigation in Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness v. DNR is resolved.

The watershed feeds into the BWCAW, a nearly 1.1-million-acre wilderness area in northeastern Minnesota popular with canoeists and campers.

Under the order, the DNR will not issue new state mineral or surface leases for nonferrous mining operations in the watershed and will review all existing leases there for compliance with lease terms. The state also said it will decline to serve as a cooperating agency in any federal environmental review of nonferrous mining proposals in the watershed, and the DNR will draft legislation seeking a permanent ban on such mining in the region.

“The Boundary Waters is a national treasure and home to some of Minnesota’s most pristine waters and wilderness,” Walz said in a statement. “This place is deeply personal to me, to Minnesotans, and to people across the country who have paddled these waters. I am using my full executive authority to protect the waters and wildlife of the Boundary Waters.”

The order comes after Congress used a fast-track procedural tool called the Congressional Review Act to reverse a 20-year federal moratorium on mining in the watershed. The Senate voted 50-49 and the House 214-208 to overturn the mining ban.

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Opponents of such mining have long argued that sulfide-ore mining poses a risk of acid mine drainage into the wilderness’s interconnected waterways. Mining supporters have said the projects would bring jobs and tap valuable mineral deposits needed for manufacturing and clean energy technology.

State officials framed the order as a continuation of environmental policies pursued during Walz’s tenure. DNR Commissioner Sarah Strommen said the order “strengthen[s]” existing protections for the wilderness area. MPCA Commissioner Katrina Kessler said the move came “at a time when the federal government is stepping back on its commitment to protecting the environment.”

Becky Rom, national chair of the advocacy group Save the Boundary Waters, praised the order, saying “copper mining and the Boundary Waters cannot safely coexist.”

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The Walz administration’s announcement also cited the region’s outdoor recreation economy, valued at nearly $1 billion, as a reason for the action. It further pointed to broader environmental initiatives over the past eight years, including a reported 16% drop in statewide greenhouse gas emissions, the creation of 60,000 clean energy jobs, and a ban on PFAS chemicals.

The executive order does not affect ferrous, or iron ore, mining, which remains a significant industry in northeastern Minnesota’s Iron Range. It was not immediately clear whether mining companies or industry groups would challenge the order in court.

The coalition to save the Boundary Waters noted that Walz’s action is a governor’s executive order, not a law. It can be undone by a future state administration the same way it was created – with a signature, not a legislative vote. It is also tied to the outcome of ongoing litigation over the state’s own mining rules and new rulemaking.

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.”

Read the complete order from Walz here.