Feds Seeks to Dismiss Twin Metals Mineral Rights Lawsuit

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) _ The Justice Department has moved to dismiss a lawsuit
challenging an Obama administration decision against renewing mineral rights
leases for the proposed Twin Metals copper-nickel mine in northeastern
Minnesota.

In a motion late Monday, the Justice Department says the federal district court
in Minnesota lacks jurisdiction to hear the case, and that it must be brought in
the Federal Court of Claims instead.

An environmental group involved in the case, Northeastern Minnesotans for
Wilderness, makes some similar arguments in its own motion to dismiss.

The filings follow Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue's statement that federal
agencies would proceed with a two-year study on whether copper-nickel mining
should be permitted on federal lands in the watershed that flows into the
Boundary Waters Canoe Area.

That includes the Twin Metals site near Ely.