The bill, which passed 216 to 204 and still must clear the Senate and be signed by President Trump before taking effect, would end an Obama-administration ban on exploration and mining near the federal wilderness.

The bill is aimed at Twin Metals, the Chilean-owned company that wants to build a massive underground copper mine near the Kawishiwi River southeast of Ely.

The U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management in January refused to renew mineral leases held by Twin Metals that allowed them to explore in the area. Moreover, the Forest Service moved to ban all new mining activities near the BWCAW for at least two years and potentially more while the agency conducts a generic study on the potential of mining to damage the wilderness.

Critics say that the mine could send tainted runoff into the pristine BWCAW watershed.

H.R. 3905, sponsored by Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., also prohibits any president from creating any new national monument in Minnesota without Congressional approval. 

The final vote Thursday came after a heated debate Wednesday on the House floor which included lawmakers from across the nation debating the potential impact, or not, of copper mining on the Boundary Waters.

“This legislation is critically important to the United States,” Emmer said during debate on the House floor before the vote, saying the copper, nickel and other metals are “strategically important” for the nation’s economy and national defense.

Emmer said removing the mining moratorium simply opens the area to exploration and mining potential and that all environmental review and permitting regulations would still be in place. And supporters repeatedly noted that the project would not be located inside the BWCAW.

Copper mining supporters say Twin Metals, wholly owned by mining giant Antofagasta, should be given the chance to apply for environmental review for the massive underground mine. The company already has pumped $400 million into the project and plans to spend another $1.2 billion to develop the mine that could employ 650 people and spur hundreds of other jobs. 

Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., said he trusted Iron Range residents to guard the clean waters of northern Minnesota and said they deserve the chance at the jobs Twin Metals promised. He said the bill unlocked the region's potential that had been locked up by the last-minute Obama administration action, which Gosar said was illegal.

But the Forest Service concluded, and environmental groups agree, that the runoff from the mine poses too great a risk to the pristine waters of the federal wilderness. They also say the company should have nothing to fear from the Forest Service environmental study. 

“If this bill pases it will create an industrial wasteland” on the edge of the BWCAW, Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., said in the floor debate. “One of our nation's last wild places becomes collateral damage.”

Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., said the bill was a  “job destroyer’’ because it threatened the “crown jewel of Minnesota” and the jobs that depend on clean water and wild places for tourism and recreation.

“The damage it will do is not Republican or Democrat, it’s American,’’ Ellison said.

Rep. Alan Lowenthal, D-Calif., who led the floor argument against the bill, said the Twin Metals project would be located upstream of much of the BWCAW.

“There is no gap. There is no buffer,” he said. “Any acid mine leakage would flow right into the Boundary Waters.”

Rep. Rick Nolan, D-Minn., voted in favor of the bill.