The headline asks good questions. And there are longstanding federal treaty tribal rights to wild rice harvests in Minnesota waters. What's that worth if the wild rice gets poisoned?
Every voter in Minnesota should know the facts of this clear online site ---
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/copper-reserves-by-country
The message - there's more ore elsewhere. So do it in your backyard or somebody else's backyard, not ours. Not in the Rainy River Watershed. We don't want your mess where you copper oligarchs do not mine sulfide minerals safely.
Disaster Prone is a mere euphemism for your recent oligarchic record.
Go away. Exploit others. Not us. Said simply -
Oligarchs in Chile and Switzerland: Don't go away mad, just go away.
________________UPDATE________________
After the screed, some links. Steve Timmer at left.mn has published much on the subject of sulfide mining history and expectations, safety-wise, and it is scare packed coverage. He knows more of the issue than I do. Crabgrass did search = left.mn sulfide mining
Much showed up beyond that site's posting alone. For that site, recently, here and here. Those two posted by Dan Burns, not Timmer. Two Timmer posts from earlier, here and here. Posts there have sidebar links allowing readers to unravel the full thread on topic.
That search returned two waterlegacy.org posts, here and here.
Local View: Sulfide-ore mining a lose-lose for Minnesota,
Sulfide-Ore Copper Mining and the Risks
Science Desk: How Sulfide-Ore Copper Mines Pollute
Toxic sulfide Mining Near the BWCA
Do your own research, and you might even hit on mining oligarch propaganda.
It is not simply Crabgrass bloviating, it is argument from multiple outlets urging caution.
Urging avoidance of too rapid a possible decision bias leading to possible long term disaster.
A "measure twice before cutting" message. Something like that. There is no urgency. Those saying move now seem to show false prophet motivation.
Striking while a partisan iron is hot is an aim some show.