(Photo by Christina MacGillivray/Minnesota Reformer)

(Minnesota Reformer) – U.S. Minnesota Senator Tina Smith was raw with emotion on the Senate floor as she argued against a bill that would allow sulfide mining in areas near the Boundary Waters Canoe Wilderness.

“You may be wondering why I am standing here at nearly midnight keeping everyone up. Here’s why: Because I know people in Minnesota are wondering whether anybody in this building cares about what they think,” she said.

She’d been reading letters from constituents arguing against threatening the pristine waters of the Boundary Waters.

Northeast Minnesota sits atop the Duluth Complex, a significant deposit of copper and nickel. Twin Metals, a subsidiary of the Chilean mining conglomerate Antofagasta, wants to extract both minerals — along with cobalt and other precious metals — from underground veins near Ely and Babbitt, about a dozen miles from the wilderness area.