Mining vote tests Amy Klobuchar's Iron Range appeal

Sen.

- Chloe Johnson, Tribune News Service

Amy Klobuchar

Amy Klobuchar has never hesitated to mention her mining heritage.When she launched an ultimately unsuccessful presidential run in 2019, she told supporters during her speech in a snowy Minneapolis, “My grandpa worked 1,500 feet underground in the mines up north on the Iron Range. ... He saved money in a coffee can in the basement to send my dad to college.” Klobuchar often has referred to that heritage as she has supported the state's taconite industry, historically an economic lifeline on the Iron Range. It is credited with bolstering her appeal to northern Minnesota voters.

But the senator has said little on copper-nickel mining, a long-discussed but still unrealised industry in Minnesota — until recently. Through a spokesperson, Klobuchar said she plans to vote against a US Senate resolution that would remove a 20-year ban on mining in an area next to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. The ban is effectively blocking the Twin Metals project, which would extract copper, nickel and other metals in a region where water flows to the protected wilderness.