Antofagasta Asks for Another Delay in the Boundary Waters Litigation so that Kate MacGregor Can Fix Their Mineral Leases
The foreign mining company with plans to mine nickel and copper on the edge of the Boundary Waters today asked the DC District Court of Appeals for yet another 180-day delay.
Antofagasta plc long ago gave up trying to win this case on its merits. The brief filed today makes it clear — once again — that they plan to rely on political influence and on working behind closed doors with the Department of Interior instead.
Plaintiff Antofagasta (Twin Metals) and the Federal Defendants (the Trump administration) need another six months, they say, “because, although certain steps have occurred, Federal Defendants and Twin Metals anticipate that further action remains to occur.” Put plainly, the mining company needs the Department of the Interior to reinstate the mineral leases that the Biden administration canceled in 2022, and it needs Interior to take up the preference-right lease applications (PRLAs) that Biden’s Department of Interior rejected in 2021.
And they are counting on Deputy Secretary of the Interior Kate MacGregor to deliver on both fronts.
Almost as soon as Trump took office, MacGregor suspended the legal opinion that allowed Interior the discretion to review and cancel the Twin Metals leases, and then she reinstated the Jorjani legal opinion from Trump’s first term that gave the government no choice but to renew the leases. Now she needs to take “new, final action regarding the lease cancellations themselves.” At the same time, MacGregor “has taken jurisdiction over Twin Metals’ administrative appeal” of the PRLAs. MacGregor can now claim that she has the authority to do so, because in April of this year, Congress disapproved the 20-year Rainy River watershed mineral withdrawal that the Biden administration had put into place.
The pieces of the political project are falling into place. The mining company knows that now is not the time for continued litigation or a ruling on its appeal. Obviously they would much rather deal with Kate MacGregor than with Judge Cooper.
Here is today’s filing.
Twin Metals v. US 5 Oct 26Download
#ANTO #BoundaryWaters #corruption #ethics #humanRights #kleptocracy #mining #oligarchy #power #resourceHoarding #Water