Republicans Sell Out America’s Most Beloved Wilderness to Foreign Mining Conglomerate

Washington, D.C. - Today, House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) released the following statement after the Senate voted to send H.J. Res. 140 to President Trump’s desk, using the Congressional Review Act to open over 250,000 acres in the Boundary Waters of Northern Minnesota to mining.

“What happened in the Senate today is a betrayal of Americans and one of our greatest wild places. Millions of families have paddled the Boundary Waters, fished its clean lakes, and slept under its dark skies for generations. Now Republicans are handing this pristine wilderness to a Chilean mining conglomerate and letting them dig a sulfide-ore copper mine in the headwaters.

“They are doing this knowing full well that every single time sulfide-ore copper mining has been tried, it has polluted the surrounding environment. Every time. That track record is exactly why this area was protected in 2023. Republicans are throwing all that in the trash. And for what? The national security excuse falls apart in about 30 seconds. Read Antofagasta's contracts: every mineral pulled from American soil will be shipped straight to China for processing.

“Republicans sold out the Boundary Waters today. They sold out the families who fish there, the small businesses that live off the tourism, and the clean water that connects the entire system – all so Trump’s foreign billionaire buddy can mine our lands and ship the minerals overseas. I’m standing with the millions of people who refuse to let a corrupt president sacrifice our public lands and waters to prop up polluters. America's wilderness belongs to Americans, and we’ll keep fighting.”

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