New Minnesota BWCA Legislation Introduced: The Four Features Bill
February 19, 2024 11:43 amby SFBW staff
The Four Features Bill
On Monday, February 12th, 2024, a new bill was introduced to the Minnesota State Legislature that would prohibit specific nonferrous metallic minerals mining activities within the Rainy River Watershed. SF 3434, authored by Senator Morrison and its companion in the House of Representatives, HF 3458, authored by Representatives Feist, point out four nonferrous mineral mining practices that have the potential to impact the integrity of the watershed and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
Sportsmen for the Boundary Waters stands behind efforts that simultaneously protect the Boundary Waters from nonferrous metallic mineral mining and preserve Northern Minnesota’s heritage of iron and taconite mining. Here is a simple breakdown of the four features that the bill intends to prohibit.
The Four Features: Within the Rainy River headwaters watershed, a person may not:
1. “Dispose of or store waste tailings from nonferrous metallic mineral mining above ground.”
This would mean that anyone mining for nonferrous minerals in the Rainy River watershed would not be able to keep or dispose of any of the mining waste on site. Waste is created by removing material from the target deposit being mined. Historically, this waste is either stored in man-made tailings dams, or in dry stack tailings. Nonferrous waste tailings often carry large amounts of toxic heavy metal contaminants.
2. “Store reactive waste rock from nonferrous metallic mineral mining above ground.”
Much like waste tailings, waste rock must be removed in order to access the target deposit. This prohibition would prevent anyone from stockpiling potentially toxic waste rock in the watershed.
3. “Use a heap leaching mining process when mining nonferrous metallic minerals.”
Heap leaching is a process that aids in separating waste material from target minerals and is especially useful when mining low-grade ore. This is done by repeatedly spraying mined materials with a cyanide solution and then collecting the minerals over several different stages. In the event of a spill or catastrophe, cyanide could pose a significant threat to the fish, wildlife, and plant life in the watershed. Under the proposed bill, heap leaching would be prohibited in the Rainy River watershed.
4. “Conduct nonferrous metallic mineral smelting.”
Smelting is the process of melting ore into a metal product using extreme heat. This process has the potential to release toxins into the air that are detrimental to human, fish, animal, and plant life. This bill would force anyone taking nonferrous metallic ore from the Rainy River watershed to have their smelting done elsewhere.
Should this bill pass, it would not guarantee that nonferrous mining operations wouldn’t take place in the Rainy River watershed. Still, it would help eliminate some practices that have a track record of negative environmental impacts. Sportsmen for the Boundary Waters will continue to monitor the progression of the bill through the Minnesota State Legislature and communicate opportunities for our supporters to engage with their representatives and foster bi-partisan support.
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