The Senate voted to pass a measure that would lift a Biden administration mining ban in northern Minnesota, opening the door to drilling for critical minerals in an area that environmentalists have sought to limit from development.

On Thursday, the Senate voted 50-49 to pass a Congressional Review Act resolution led by Rep. Pete Stauber (R-MN) that would terminate the Biden administration’s 20-year mining ban on 225,504 acres in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness near the Canadian border.

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