New Executive Order Aims to Make Mining the Primary Use of Public Lands at ‘As Many Sites As Possible’

The Trump Administration issued yet another executive order on Thursday. This one directs the federal government to mine federal public lands “to the maximum possible extent,” and to prioritize mining over all other uses on federal lands that contain critical mineral deposits.

This should be alarming to conservationists and wilderness advocates. Because in addition to putting critical areas like the Boundary Waters and Bristol Bay back in the crosshairs, the administration’s extraction-first approach could dramatically shift what our public lands look like and how we use them. 

“There are really three main thrusts to this executive order,” Dan Hartinger, senior director of agency policy for the Wilderness Society, tells Outdoor Life. “Job one is to open new places to mining. Job two is to subsidize mining in those places. And job three is to ram through individual projects regardless of public input or what the science says.”

The executive order, Immediate Measures to Increase American Mineral Production, invokes wartime powers granted by the Defense Production Act. It allows Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to expand the country’s list of critical minerals. It also directs Burgum to make a priority list of all federal lands with mineral deposits, and to take whatever actions necessary to expedite and issue mining permits there. This includes rolling back environmental regulations and finding ways to fund and subsidize private mining companies with taxpayer dollars.

One major issue with this executive order is how broad it is, Hartinger says. The order could include lands already protected from mining, such as public land near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, and other lands with high recreational or wildlife habitat value, which have historically been managed for multiple uses.

The Biden Administration effectively halted the current plans by Twin Metals, a Chilean subsidiary, to build a copper-nickel mine just south of the BWCA in 2023 by placing a 20-year moratorium on all mining there. But Hartinger and others say the recent executive order lays the groundwork for reversing that action and re-opening the door to Twin Metals’ mine.

“This executive order threatens all of America’s iconic landscapes — including the Boundary Waters,” executive director of Save the Boundary Waters Ingrid Lyons tells OL in an emailed statement. “We will continue to track this and the several other pathways this Administration is using to undermine science, the law, and the will of the people on the issue of protecting the Boundary Waters — America’s favorite and now most threatened Wilderness area.”

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The current text of the order emphasizes fewer regulations around permitting mining claims and fewer environmental protections regarding the disposal of waste rock and mine tailings. It does not rule out certain kinds of federal lands, such as parks or monuments, and it directs government agencies to amend or revise the Federal Land Policy and Management Act “as necessary” to support mining as the primary use of those lands. Enacted in 1976, FLPMA established the Bureau of Land Management’s mandate to manage public lands for a variety of uses (recreation, mining, and timber production being just a few) while ensuring the long-term health and productivity of those lands.

“Now, will they do that in every single area [with known mineral deposits]? It’s unclear. But we certainly have a sense of some of the places that are the most threatened,” Hartinger says. “In addition to the Boundary Waters, I think the greater Grand Canyon region could very much be under threat.”

Subsidizing Foreign Companies to Mine American Land

By invoking its wartime powers with the executive order, the Trump administration claims that taking a mining-first approach is vital to shore up national security and compete with foreign hostile nations. But its actions via executive order stand to benefit the international mining conglomerates that are already operating on U.S. federal lands and which, Hartinger says, are not required to pay royalties or other fees for their right to mine. 

“This would use taxpayer funding to issue loans and capital assistance, and essentially subsidize these operations. So not only are these companies getting the land for free, and the minerals for free, and the ability to dump their waste basically wherever they want. We’re going to pay them with taxpayer money to do that.”

This would be a significant step toward the Trump administration’s larger plans to unleash American energy. It also aligns with other moves the administration has made in recent weeks, including the creation of a federal Task Force that aims to sell off “underutilized” public lands for affordable housing developments. These actions, along with mass layoffs at the federal agencies that manage our public lands, all point toward a common goal. 

Read Next: How Seriously Should We Take the Sale of Federal Lands? Very Seriously, Experts Say

“I think it’s helpful to think about this as part of a pattern. And, you know, it’s very concerning to us to hear Secretary Burgum saying our federal lands are assets on the nation’s balance sheet,” Hartinger says. “But I think it’s very instructive, too. Because this administration sees our public lands not as things that provide inherent and intrinsic benefits to us, in the form of clean water and air, recreation, wildlife habitat, or any of these myriad uses. It is purely a matter of: How can we extract the maximum short-term dollars from these places?”