Canadian gold mine in the Boundary Waters watershed extends its mine life by ten years

Did you know there is already a non-ferrous mine operating in the same watershed as the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness on the Canadian side of the border?

The mine, called the Rainy River mine, produces gold and has been operating since 2017. It will continue to produce gold until 2031, according to Mining.com.

The government of Canada seems to have no qualms about permitting a modern mine in the Rainy River watershed, but the same cannot be said for the Biden administration, which pulled the leases for the proposed Twin Metals mine in January of 2022 after they had been reinstated by the Trump administration.

In doing so, President Biden pulled the leases on 750 new, family-supporting jobs in the region, and made the United States more reliant on other countries for the minerals we need every day. As I wrote when the lease withdrawal was announced,

Biden’s decision to pull the mineral leases also repeats the same mistakes that Europe has made over the previous decade of outsourcing the production of critical products, including energy and metals.

Now that many nations on the European continent have shut down their coal and nuclear power plants and banned the use of hydraulic fracturing for natural gas production, they are completely at the mercy of Vladimir Putin for natural gas. Putin understands this, and he is exploiting his advantage with a growing threat of military adventurism in Ukraine.

Canada mines in the Rainy River watershed — why won’t President Biden let Minnesotans do the same?