mining

The project involved 12, 600-foot deep holes on some 1,900 acres. It would have required vegetation clearing and less than a mile of temporary access roads.

Zortman-Landusky mine owner Luke Ployhar is accused of eight separate mining violations at the former mining site, which has also been the site of a huge remediation project that will likely last forever.

The headwaters of the Bitterroot River is a bad place for a rare-earth element mine, according to a local mine-contamination expert.

The court found that DEQ had granted a dryland opencut permit without confirming whether surface and groundwater could be polluted or how many residents could be affected within a half-mile of the gravel pit.

Federal land managers have pulled their approval for a controversial lithium exploration project less than a mile from a treasured wetland habitat home to a trove of species found nowhere else in the world.

A Missoula County judge will decide by Friday whether a new gravel pit near Elbow Lake and the Clearwater Game Range can continue operations while the pit is being challenged.

Construction of what may become the nation’s largest lithium mine can proceed after a U.S. appeals court denied a last ditch effort by tribes and conservationists to block the controversial project.

The order stopped operations of the Elbow Lake Aggregation Project, a recently approved 21-acre gravel pit and asphalt plant.

America’s quest to rid itself of fossil fuels and move toward electric vehicles is clashing with environmentalists who are trying to protect areas proposed for lithium mining.

The Biden administration says the mine will help wean the U.S. off fossil fuels, but opponents say it will destroy water supplies and wildlife habitat.