ST. PAUL — The Trump administration has resurrected an effort to build the proposed Twin Metals copper-nickel mine in Minnesota.

Last December, the Obama administration declined to renew the long-standing leases that the company needs for the underground mine it wants to build near Ely. But an in opinion published Friday, a top attorney at the U.S. Interior Department concluded the Bureau of Land Management erred when it concluded that BLM had the power to grant or deny the lease renewals.

The reversal means the BLM and the U.S. Forest Service must reconsider Twin Metals’ 2012 lease renewal application.

Twin Metals said Friday it is still reviewing the new decision. The proposed site sits upstream from the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.