{"id":1825487,"date":"2023-01-26T17:19:25","date_gmt":"2023-01-26T22:19:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1825487"},"modified":"2023-01-26T17:20:16","modified_gmt":"2023-01-26T22:20:16","slug":"interior-department-blocks-minnesota-twin-metals-mining-project-in-big-win-for-beijing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/interior-department-blocks-minnesota-twin-metals-mining-project-in-big-win-for-beijing\/","title":{"rendered":"Interior Department Blocks Minnesota Twin Metals Mining Project In Big Win For Beijing"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Finterior-department-blocks-minnesota-twin-metals-mining-project-in-big-win-for-beijing%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1825487&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47-->\n<p>While the Biden administration halted plans to build a major nickel-cobalt mine in Minnesota on Thursday, the U.S. is still dependent on foreign supply chains for critical minerals.<\/p>\n<p>The \u201cTwin Metals Project\u201d Would have tapped on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.twin-metals.com\/why-minnesota\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Duluth Complex<\/a> within the Superior National Forest, where 95 percent of the nation\u2019s nickel reserves and 88 percent of American cobalt reserves remain underground. <\/p>\n<p>The Department of the Interior has reblocked nearly all of the leases in the meantime, due to litigation. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.timberjay.com\/stories\/twin-metals-study-shows-profits-but-at-hefty-cost,11648\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">$3 billion<\/a> Concerns about the safety and integrity of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in the national forest prompted me to file mine. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Department of the Interior takes seriously our obligations to steward public lands and waters on behalf of all Americans,\u201d Deb Haaland, Interior Secretary, stated in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.doi.gov\/pressreleases\/biden-harris-administration-protects-boundary-waters-area-watershed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">press release<\/a>. \u201cProtecting a place like Boundary Waters is key to supporting the health of the watershed and its surrounding wildlife, upholding our Tribal trust and treaty responsibilities, and boosting the local recreation economy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The department withdrew more than 225,000 acres of the Superior National Forest from consideration for mining operations, ensuring the Twin Metals project\u2019s demise for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n<p>The agency\u2019s decision to block the project, however, is a major step back for American mineral independence while the government\u2019s mining regime remains so broken that the administration is <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/08\/25\/biden-shops-for-critical-minerals-in-canada-while-shutting-down-mining-projects-on-american-soil\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">shopping in Canada<\/a> Natural resources <\/p>\n<p>Debra Struhsacker, a hardrock mining and environmental policy expert who has testified before Congress five times, told The Federalist the administration\u2019s refusal to allow the Twin Metals project to move forward is premature.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is truly unfortunate that at a time when there is widespread recognition that the U.S. urgently needs the copper, nickel, and cobalt in the Twin Metals mineral deposit to help achieve the nation\u2019s clean energy objectives, that this world-class deposit is now off-limits for at least two decades,\u201d Struhsacker, he said. \u201cThe public\u2019s interest would have been better served if the administration had performed a rigorous environmental analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act to examine the specifics of Twin Metal\u2019s proposed mining project and determine whether the deposit could have been developed in a way that would have ensured environmental protection of the Boundary Waters Area Watershed.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>The Brookings Institute, a left-leaning think tank, published last fall a report warning about the vulnerability to mineral supply chains if they rely too heavily on foreign competitors. While leftist lawmakers are keen to increase the use of emission-free energy technologies that depend on critical minerals, the Biden administration is slow to reform the U.S. mining regulatory system.<\/p>\n<p>Beijing stands to benefit the most from Washington\u2019s neglect. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/08\/05\/even-this-left-wing-report-sounds-the-alarm-u-s-is-way-too-dependent-on-communist-china-for-minerals\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">According<\/a> to Brookings, nearly 70 percent of the world\u2019s cobalt comes from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where workers often operate in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=CIWvk3gJ_7E\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">sub-human conditions<\/a> Complete with child labor. Chinese are the most successful people in the world. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/in-congo-china-hits-roadblock-in-global-race-forcobalt-11647081180\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">out-invested<\/a> Every global competitor in Congolese mining.<\/p>\n<p>More than 30 percent of the world\u2019s nickel comes from Indonesia, where the Chinese are also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2022-12-15\/chinese-companies-are-flocking-to-indonesia-for-its-nickel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">investing heavily<\/a> To cement a sphere communist influence. The East Asian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The &#8216;Twin Metals Project&#8217; would have tapped the Duluth Complex, where 95 percent of U.S. nickel reserves and 88 percent of U.S. cobalt reserves remain underground.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":494,"featured_media":1825490,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[4290,6183,4724,8674,12822,15374,5698,4146,16626,7627],"class_list":["post-1825487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist","tag-beijing","tag-blocks","tag-department","tag-interior","tag-metals","tag-mining","tag-minnesota","tag-project","tag-twin","tag-win"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1825487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/494"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1825487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1825487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1825490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1825487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1825487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1825487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}