The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCA) is a large, popular, and watery wilderness area in Northeastern Minnesota. A proposed Twin Metals Minnesota (TMM) copper sulfide mine is planned 5 miles from the BWCA, upstream from the wilderness area. TMM claims the mine will be environmentally safe, while many scientists and environmental advocates disagree. A copper sulfide mine has never been developed in Minnesota. As such, it is valuable to look towards other mines with similar elements for comparison. In this literature review, I find that Michigan’s Upper Peninsula mining shows tailings are harmful to amphibians and put mercury in the ecosystem. Studies of mines in northern Quebec show environmental monitoring techniques. The Quebec mines also show disruption of fish populations, and acidic dust released into the air. Mine tailing reclamation in Sudbury, Ontario, showed that productive forests can be established on certain mine tailings, but that these sites still destroy and pollute existing ecosystems. By comparing to existing mines, the proposed TMM mine is shown to have the potential to cause likely environmental harm in many ways, and there are established monitoring techniques that can be used to survey this damage.