WASHINGTON — Twin Metals Minnesota is front and center in the latest Trump family news.
The Wall Street Journal reports Senior Advisor and daughter of President Donald Trump, Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner are renting their multi-million dollar Kalorama home from Chilean businessman Andrónico Luksic.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Luksic, who owns Twin Metals Minnesota, filed a lawsuit against “the federal government for withdrawing mineral right leases from a proposed copper-nickel mine in northern Minnesota.”
The company states on their website, “The proposals [made by the U.S. Forestry Service and U.S. Bureau of Land Management] are to withdraw from hundreds of thousands of acres from mineral exploration and mining development, all without on-the-ground studies and based on unsupported fears. If enacted, the withdrawal proposal will cause the state to lose the potential for thousands of mining jobs, and billions of dollars in future investment in Northern Minnesota.”
Iron Range residents filed suit against Governor Mark Dayton in February. As reported, Dayton’s executive order “opposed the proposed mine on state land in Ely, Minn.” The order resulted in the federal government rescinding Twin Metals’ mineral leases.
The mining industry has taken a huge hit in recent years. As reported by Alpha News, growing concern over the environment has led to job loss in northern Minnesota. “ Minnesota lost 337 jobs in the mining and logging industry in 2016. In 2015, Al Jazeera America notes, “projects that would bring much needed jobs [to the Minnesota boundary waters] could also ruin irreplaceable drinking water.”
While the Wall Street Journal notes neither Trump or Kushner have met with Luksic or discussed the mining lawsuit, her father campaigned on bringing mining jobs back to mining communities.
Minnesota Congressman Rick Nolan (MN-08) has been supportive of Trump’s initiative to return mining jobs to the people in his district. As reported by Alpha News, Nolan has asked the federal government to overturn the mining and mineral block in his district. “I support responsible mining and the rigorous, thorough environmental review process that each and every project proposal must go through…Denying any business activity before you know what it is – and what kind of pollution abatement technology they will use or how effective it will be – lacks common sense and subverts the good, thorough, and elaborate environmental review process we have in place.”
The $2.8 billion project is currently in limbo as the lawsuit continues. President Trump has already begun to reverse mining regulations in his first 100 days.
Preya Samsundar
Preya Samsundar was born and raised in Minneapolis, MN. She graduated from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities this Spring with a B.A. in Political Science and Sociology, with a minor in Strategic Communications. Preya has previously worked on several State Campaign Races.
