The yearslong effort by HiTech Minerals to search for the lucrative chemical element got a sudden boost from the Bureau of Land Management.
The federal government appears poised to grant permission to an Australian company looking to drill for lithium in a dry lakebed on the Oregon-Nevada border — an area said to contain one of the world’s highest concentrations of the profitable soft metal.
Critics say the new timeline proposed by the Bureau of Land Management for the project by HiTech Minerals gave the public too little time to respond, reports The Oregonian.
Last week, the BLM announced it would allow HiTech, a subsidiary of Jindalee Lithium, to perform exploratory drilling at McDermitt Caldera. The work is projected to last five years and represents a potential first step toward opening a new mine. A lithium mine is already under construction by a different company on the Nevada side of the caldera.
The comment period for the project expired March 31, five days after the BLM released the assessment. HiTech’s plan of operations submitted with the BLM states the project will “begin immediately upon federal and state authorization.”
Lithium is key to producing batteries that store renewable energy and power electric vehicles. This has caused it to become a highly valued chemical element over the past few decades and mining companies have invested deeply to find additional sources.
At approximately 21 miles and 27 miles wide, McDermitt Caldera originated as a volcano around 19 million years ago. Prior research has suggested it formed as part of the Yellowstone hotspot, which led to the formation of a sequence of calderas. In 2017, a team of researchers found evidence that one part of the caldera called Thacker Pass could be among the largest sources of lithium ever found, worth around $1.5 trillion. HiTech submitted the assessment to the BLM in 2023. Other business interests including Lithium Americas have won permits to explore the area for lithium.
Lithium mining at McDermitt Caldera has long been opposed by environmental groups, local interests and tribes. Critics like Reno-based Great Basin Resource Watch note the BLM typically provides the opportunity for public comment for 30 to 90 days, and not five days as in this case. The environmental nonprofit, which has sued several times to stop the project, is concerned about groundwater and air quality, sensitive wildlife habitat and the government proceeding with inadequate public input.
The government has determined the exploration process will not lead to significant environmental impacts — and thus does not require a full environmental review — and businesses have been awarded the right to mine at the site. President Donald Trump has spoken against EV-friendly policies despite a close alliance with Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, the world’s largest EV manufacturer. In his first months in office, Trump and Musk have set about radically altering the federal bureaucracy, including changes at the BLM.
Trump has also spoken in favor of increasing mineral extraction and last month signed an executive order to boost critical mineral production and speed approval for such projects.
The exploratory drilling project calls for the creation of access roads and more than 260 drill sites. The 100-acre project area is the ancestral and current home of Fort McDermitt Paiute, Shoshone and Bannock tribes. It’s habitat to species like the Lahontan cutthroat trout and the King River Pyrg spring snail, which is found nowhere else in the world.
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