PILLAR 01 OF 05 Agenda Minnesota · The Indictment Series
The Charge — Documented. Bipartisan. Sixty Years Running.
America imports cobalt from children's mines in the Congo. Minnesota has been sitting on 88% of U.S. cobalt reserves the entire time. Both parties. Zero mines. The same minds. The same result.
American EV batteries are built with cobalt from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where child labor has been documented in artisanal supply chains that feed Apple, Ford, and Lockheed. American defense systems run on nickel from Indonesia and platinum from Russia. American semiconductors depend on materials sourced from countries that are not our allies and do not share our values.

Minnesota holds 95% of confirmed U.S. nickel reserves. 88% of U.S. cobalt reserves. 75% of U.S. platinum group metals. The world's richest confirmed helium deposit. Every one of those minerals is locked in the ground beneath northeastern Minnesota. Every governor since 1966 has known it. Every senator, every representative, every party in power in St. Paul and Washington has known it.

The ground is still locked. That is not geography. That is a policy choice. Made by the same minds. Repeated for sixty years. While children dug cobalt in the Congo to make American products that Minnesota could have supplied.
$0
Cobalt extracted from Minnesota in the last 60 years
100%
Share of U.S. cobalt currently imported from foreign sources
70%
Share of global cobalt from the DRC — where children work the mines
2004
Year NorthMet permitting began — still not complete in 2026
$300M
Annual state revenue collected on a $2T–$4T confirmed resource
ZERO
Nonferrous mines operating in Minnesota today — both parties — six decades
You can't fix a problem
with the same mind
that created it.
"Minnesota can either watch billions of dollars and tens of thousands of high-wage jobs stay on the other side of the border — or we can bring that boom home. The choice is ours, and the clock is ticking."
Brad Kohler · Candidate for Governor of Minnesota · 2026
↓ Who did this — and what ends it
The verdict — bipartisan accountability
This is not a partisan attack.
It is a bipartisan indictment.
The record belongs to both.
Republicans governed Minnesota. Democrats governed Minnesota. Republicans held Washington. Democrats held Washington. The Duluth Complex remained sealed through all of it. This is not about party. It is about the institutional mindset — defer the decision, commission another study, manage the conflict — that both parties share and both parties applied to the same ground for sixty years.
Republican administrations — their share of the record
The ground was locked under their watch too.
NorthMet permitting began 2004Under a period of Republican federal control. The Bush administration oversaw the early years of a process that still has not concluded in 2026.
State-level permitting deferralsRepublican-controlled legislatures and governorships in Minnesota declined to create nonferrous mining regulatory frameworks that would have accelerated the process.
The result: zero minesNot one nonferrous mine opened under Republican governance at any level during the decades this ground was known to exist.
Democratic administrations — their share of the record
The ground was locked under their watch too.
Twin Metals federal lease cancellation 2021The Biden administration cancelled federal mineral leases for Twin Metals Minnesota — a direct action that set the development timeline back by years.
Army Corps wetlands permit revoked June 2023Under the Biden administration, the Army Corps of Engineers revoked a wetlands permit for NorthMet that had taken years to obtain.
Governor Walz permitting EO — February 2026After years of opposition, the DFL administration issued an executive order to reduce permitting timelines — an implicit admission that the process had been allowed to fail.
Both parties held the key.
Both parties chose not to use it.
The ground is still locked.
That is the sixty-year record. Every number verified. Every action documented. No spin from either direction.
The resolution — a different mind. Day one.
The lock comes off.
All nine deposits.
Day one. Within existing law.
Brad Kohler does not propose to study the Duluth Complex. He does not commission another environmental review. He does not hold hearings. On day one of a Kohler administration in January 2027, executive orders go out to the Minnesota DNR, the Pollution Control Agency, and the Department of Commerce directing them to treat all nine confirmed Duluth Complex deposits as the highest administrative priority — simultaneously, not sequentially.
Day one executive orders — within existing law Jan 20, 2027
→
All nine deposits unlocked simultaneouslyNot sequentially. Not one at a time. All nine confirmed Duluth Complex deposits enter expedited review on the same day. The administrative clock starts running for all of them at once.
→
DNR directed to prioritize — not deferThe governor directs the Minnesota DNR to staff permit reviews as priority work, eliminate internal backlogs, and report weekly on progress. The culture of deferral ends on day one.
→
Federal coordination activatedExecutive Order 14241 already designated domestic mineral production a national priority. NorthMet is already on the federal permitting dashboard. A Kohler administration coordinates the state side actively with federal counterparts instead of passively waiting.
→
Supply chain sovereignty beginsThe moment permits are expedited, international buyers — Japanese battery manufacturers, Korean electronics companies, European industrial buyers — know the supply is coming. Supply chain contracts can be negotiated before the first shovel breaks ground.
→
Cobalt from Minnesota. Not the Congo.When the mines open, the U.S. supply chain shifts. American companies building EVs, defense systems, and semiconductors source cobalt domestically — from workers earning $96,642 per year under U.S. labor law, not children in artisanal mines.
Where the 75,000+ jobs come from
75,000+
Direct + spinoff employment at full Duluth Complex development · BLS documented wages
Cu-Ni-Co-PGM mining
10,000 direct
Processing & refining
2,400
Industrial minerals
2,500
Taconite (existing)
6,500
Spinoff (2× multiplier)
50,000+
$96,642
Average documented mining sector wage · BLS OEWS 2024 · No degree required for most positions
What is actually down there — USGS confirmed
Not a projection. Not a hope.
Confirmed geology. Federal record.
Every number below comes from the U.S. Geological Survey Mineral Commodity Summaries 2025 and the Minnesota Geological Survey Report of Investigations 58 (2002). These are not campaign estimates. They are federal geological records.
Nickel
95%
Of all confirmed U.S. reserves. Essential for EV batteries. Currently imported from Indonesia and Russia.
LOCKED
Cobalt
88%
Of all confirmed U.S. reserves. Currently 100% imported. 70% from the DRC where child labor is documented.
LOCKED
Platinum Group Metals
75%
Of all confirmed U.S. PGM reserves. Defense systems. Fuel cells. Semiconductors. Currently from Russia and South Africa.
LOCKED
Copper
34%
Of all confirmed U.S. copper resource. Required for every electrification application in the energy transition. Price: $6.25/lb June 2026.
LOCKED
Helium — Topaz
World #1
World's richest known primary helium deposit. Confirmed 2011. 10.5% He concentration. No substitute exists for MRI machines, semiconductor fabrication, rocket propulsion.
EXPLORATION
Titanium, Gold, Vanadium, Graphite
Confirmed
Multiple confirmed deposits of federal critical minerals across the Duluth Complex arc. All designated on the USGS 2025 Critical Minerals List.
LOCKED
$2.3 Trillion — $4.2 Trillion
Documented in-ground value at 2026 commodity prices · Campaign uses $4T as top-of-range figure · Full methodology at Sources page
You can't fix a problem with the same mind that created it.
The same minds locked this ground for sixty years.
For 60 years Minnesota has elected the same problem — Democrats and Republicans alike.
During those 60 years we allowed the children of far-off locations to do the heavy lifting to power our products. Your products. We watched American companies build supply chains through the Congo — where children work the mines — while the same material sat under our feet. It has always been under our feet.
That's unacceptable.
Is that the Minnesota
you want?
That ends.
Day one. 2027.
Brad Kohler is not the same mind. He did not build the system that keeps the ground locked. He did not commission the studies that replaced the mines. He did not defer the decision for another term. He wrote down exactly what he is going to do, sourced every number, and is asking for your vote to do it.
Read the Full Case → Back to the Road Map
Sources: USGS MCS 2025 · Minnesota Geological Survey RI-58 (2002) · Amnesty International cobalt supply chain documentation · Federal Permitting Dashboard (permits.performance.gov) · Mining Minnesota · BLS OEWS 2024
Agenda Minnesota — All Five Pillars
01 · Duluth Complex 02 · Bakken Oil 03 · Safe Schools 04 · Hibbing Airport 05 · Cheap Energy