Conservationists sue over federal approval for Nevada lithium mine
Edvard Pettersson
(CN) —Environmental advocacy groups sued the U.S. Bureau of Land Management on Thursday, claiming that the bureau's approval of a lithium mine in Nevada will drive the endangered Tiehm’s buckwheat wildflower to extinction.
“The Bureau of Land Management’s authorization of the Rhyolite Ridge mine is a flagrant violation of numerous environmental protection laws, and the integrity of these bedrock conservation laws is at stake," Patrick Donnelly, Great Basin director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement. "We need lithium for the crucial transition to renewable energy, but the government can’t break the law and drive species to extinction to get it.”
The center and two other groups say in a complaint filed in Las Vegas federal court that the bureau adopted a highly accelerated permitting timeline for the project, which left limited opportunities for environmental analysis and public participation.
In their rush to complete the project, the advocacy groups claim, the bureau and other federal agencies failed to ensure that the mine won't jeopardize the continued existence of Tiehm’s buckwheat or adversely modify the rare wildflower's critical habitat, as required under the Endangered Species Act.
The Center for Biological Diversity, joined by Great Basin Resource Watch and Western Shoshone Defense Project, claims in their lawsuit says the bureau violated the National Environmental Policy Act, the Federal Lands Policy and Management Act, and the Endangered Species Act in approving the mine.
Representatives of the Bureau of Land Management didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.
The bureau last week gave final approval to the Rhyolite Ridge lithium mining project in Nevada as the Biden administration seeks to strengthen domestic supplies of critical minerals needed for the country's transition to clean energy.
“We have moved quickly to build a robust and sustainable clean energy economy that will create jobs to support families, boost local economies and help address environmental injustice," Laura Daniel-Davis, acting deputy secretary of the Interior Department, said last week. "The Rhyolite Ridge lithium mine project is essential to advancing the clean energy transition and powering the economy of the future.”
Demand for critical minerals such as lithium, which is used in electric vehicle and grid-storage batteries, is expected to grow exponentially as the U.S. and many other countries around the globe transition away from fossil fuels, develop power grids and set transportation targets that will require massive amounts of battery capacity.
The project in southern Nevada's Silver Peak Range, close to its border with California, will be able to supply enough lithium to power about 370,000 electric vehicles annually, according to the Bureau of Land Management.
Tiehm’s buckwheat is a rare Nevada wildflower with delicate cream-colored blossoms that grows on just 10 acres of the boron- and lithium-rich soils of the Silver Peak Range in Esmeralda County, the center said. The buckwheat was protected under the Endangered Species Act in 2022 and 910 acres surrounding the wildflowers were designated as critical habitat.
The Bureau of Land Management said in its announcement, however, that the final environmental impact statement for the mine assessed and identified significant protections for the endangered Tiehm’s buckwheat.
These protections, the bureau said, include redesigning and relocating project features, funding Tiehm’s buckwheat propagation work and developing a formal Tiehm’s buckwheat protection plan. The project proponent, Ioneer, modified its project proposal to limit impacts on the plant and its critical habitat, according to the bureau.
However, the organizations say the environmental review process was described as being on “a very aggressive schedule that deviates from other project schedules on similar projects,” according to internal Bureau of Land Management emails the center obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
The groups are asking for a court order vacating federal approval of the the mine and an injunction blocking implementation of the project.
They are represented by Scott Lake of the Center for Biological Diversity in Reno, Nevada, and by Roger Flynn of the Western Mining Action Project in Lyons, Colorado.