Providing for Congressional Disapproval of the Rule Submitted By the Bureau of Land Management Relating to Public Land Order No. 7917 for Withdrawal of Federal Lands; Cook, Lake, and Saint Louis Counties, Mn

Floor Speech

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Mr. ZINKE. Mr. Speaker, as a former Secretary, I don't think anyone in this body has spent more time on Twin Metals reviewing the science than I have, so I think we should separate the hype from the science and the bull from fact.

First of all, why are we here and why is it important at all?

Well, this behind me are a few things we need critical minerals for: particularly our military, medical, and supply chain.

What do all these have in common? The MQ-9 Reaper, the Javelin missile system, the Virginia-class submarine, the Tomahawk, the night vision, and Amron, what do they have in common? Those minerals are found in Twin Metals in the great State of Minnesota.

Now, is it in the boundary waters? Is it in the area that is protected around it? No, it is not.

I have seen these wonderful pictures of canoeing, of waters, of streams, of lakes, and they are absolutely beautiful. The problem is that is in the boundary waters. That is not where the mine is.

Then, oh, Deb Haaland--I respect Deb Haaland. I had her in committee, Mr. Speaker. I asked her one question after a few: What minerals were in the mine area which she rescinded and put a moratorium on? I was amazed at her answer. She couldn't name one. So let's follow the science.

I agree. There is a place to mine, and there is a place not to mine. I think probably I stand on the conservation side as much as any Member, but I have actually read the documentation. I have actually read the mining plans. I have a degree in geology and looked closely at it. Do you know what. There are good projects, and there are bad projects. We don't mine like we used to.

In Montana we have Virginia City. They took a paddleboard up the river stream, took everything, turned it around. We don't mine like that anymore.

We use science now, and when you look at the science and documentation on this mine, it uses the best technology.

Oh, by the way, water, it is a closed-circuit. What does that mean? That means effluent doesn't travel outside. Its reuse is compressed. When you do mine, what you do is you put core samples in. That core sample will tell you how much overburden you have to remove. After the core samples, then you have a mining plan that tells you where the material is moved. In this case it is not an open-pit mine. It is subsurface.

I would invite my colleagues to look at the science and look at the water tables. They say 100 percent of the mines in the past were pollutants. They are not pollutants if you have a mining plan that undergoes the scrutiny that this one has.

Lastly, I will speak about the law. Notification and memo are not the same thing as a rule. Mr. Speaker, I would suggest that people actually look at the mining plan and read it, just like reading the law, what the law says. It is not a trick. I am not here tricking anyone.

What I am saying is this: Once again there are good places to mine, and there are bad places to mine, but you have got to go with the science and not the hype. When a mine is not located in the wilderness, it is not located in the buffer, it is located in a Forest Service holding, which by nature, which by law is multiple use, then mining is an appropriate use in it.

Mr. Speaker, on the basis of this, we are facing a crisis in our country because foreign adversaries hold our critical minerals, which are critical to everything we do in medical and in our military.

Secondly, follow the science and not the hype. I understand political gerrymandering and fundraising and showing pictures of wonderful canoes going across, and, oh, we are going to mine right in the middle of the wilderness area, but that is not the case.

Mr. Speaker, I ask and I urge my colleagues to support this. It is a good mine. It is a good project.

By the way, it doesn't approve anything. You still have to go through the process. So approving this act today you are not going to start the mine tomorrow. They still have to go through the process. It is about process, and that is what makes decisions good or bad is going through the process.

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