Environmentalists sued the U.S. Forest Service on Tuesday in an attempt to overturn a 2017 land transfer to PolyMet Mining Company of more than 6600 acres (2670 hectares) to build an open-pit copper and gold mine in northern Minnesota.
The lawsuit, led by (CBD), a biodiversity center, claims that the project will destroy the homes of Canadian lynx and northern long-eared bats, both of which are listed as endangered under the US Endangered species Act.
Mark Fink, an CBD lawyer, said: "these federal agencies cannot ignore the threat to endangered animals."
A similar lawsuit by CBD and other companies failed in 2019, and the court held that the parties were not qualified because PolyMet had not yet obtained a license, so there was no way to measure whether the project would cause imminent damage to the area.
Since then, PolyMet has acquired the land and obtained most of the licenses. Environmental groups asked the court to hear their claims on the case now and ordered the Forestry Bureau to resume the land.
The United States Fish and Wildlife Administration, the United States Army Corps of Engineers, and U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland (, in their official capacity, are co-defendants.
PolyMet, controlled by mining giant Glencore, said it believed the land transfer would continue. "We are confident that we can solve any problems that arise," spokesman Bruce Richardson said.
Other parties who joined CBD in the lawsuit included Save Lake Superior, Save our Sky Blue Waters, Friends of the Crocade Valley State Forest and Duluth Clean Water.
The case is the Minnesota District Court, the Secretary of the Interior and others v. the Biodiversity Center et al. Deb Haaland, No. 0:22-cv-00181.
The lawsuit comes a day after a state court ordered regulators to reconsider wastewater permits for the PolyMet project.
