RENO, Nev. — A U.S. appeals court will consider challenges Tuesday to a huge lithium mine in Nevada in a case that pits environmentalists and Native Americans against President Joe Biden’s plans to combat climate change and could have broad implications for mining operations across the West.
For the first time since it blocked construction of an Arizona copper mine last year, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was scheduled to hear oral arguments in a two-year-old legal battle with striking similarities to the Arizona case. The Nevada mine is in the works near the Oregon line and would involve extraction of the silvery-white metal used in electric-vehicle batteries.
Lawyers for Lithium Americas — the Canadian company that broke ground on the project in March — as well as the U.S. government, conservationists, tribes and a Nevada rancher were allotted time to highlight their positions during Tuesday’s hearing before a three-judge panel in Pasadena, California.
Leaders of the Western Shoshone and Paiute tribes have argued with little success to date that the Thacker Pass mine is on sacred lands where dozens of tribal members were massacred in 1865 by the U.S. Cavalry. Tribal leaders say the site cannot be disturbed under laws protecting historical and cultural resources.
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Conservationists say the open pit mine, deeper than the length of a football field, will pollute the groundwater and destroy precious habitat for sage grouse, pronghorn antelope and other species in violation of environmental laws.
The Bureau of Land Management approved the mine on an accelerated basis under the Trump administration. But the Biden administration has continued to embrace it in an effort to ramp up U.S. production of lithium needed for electric vehicles that are an integral part of Biden’s clean energy agenda.
Construction began in early March after the court denied opponents’ request for an emergency injunction. In recent weeks, a few activists were arrested at a protest encampment organized by tribal leaders. The mining company subsequently filed suit in county court to prohibit any further trespassing and local sheriff’s deputies served a protective order on its behalf, banning protestors.
Daranda Hinkey, a Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone tribe member, holds a large hand-painted sign that says “No Lithium No mine” at her home, on April 24, 2023, on the Fort McDermitt Indian Reservation, near McDermitt, Nev. U.S. Bureau of Land Management has been fighting mining challenges for nearly three years of all sorts, like those of environmentalists, tribal leaders, ranchers and others who want to overturn its approval of a huge lithium mine in the works in northwest Nevada near the Oregon line. Credit: AP/Rick Bowmer
“Our people couldn’t return to Thacker Pass for fear of being killed in 1865, and now in 2023 we can’t return or we’ll be arrested,” said Bethany Sam, a descendant of one of the massacre victims and spokesperson for the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony who was among those arrested.
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“Meanwhile, bulldozers are digging our ancestors’ graves up,” she said last week.
Lithium Americas has said reserves at the Thacker Pass mine would support lithium for more than 1.5 million electric vehicles per year for 40 years.
“There are no other U.S. alternatives to Thacker Pass to provide lithium at the scale, grade or timeline necessary to begin closing the gap between the lithium available and the lithium needed to achieve the U.S.’s clean energy and transportation goals,” its lawyers said in briefs filed with the 9th Circuit earlier this year.
The current appeal is based in large part on the legal landscape that has evolved since the bureau approved the Thacker Pass mine in 2021 and the appellate court’s decision in the Arizona case.
That April 2022 ruling upended the government’s long-held position that established mining claims automatically convey the same mineral rights under the 1872 Mining Law to adjacent lands where tailings and other waste will be buried.
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The 9th Circuit held instead that the company must establish that valuable minerals are present under such lands for the claim to also extend to those lands.
Citing the new “Rosemont precedent,” U.S. District Judge Miranda Du, in Reno, concluded the bureau violated the law when it approved plans for the Thacker Pass mine. But instead of blocking construction she allowed it to commence and ordered the bureau to present additional proof it had satisfied the law.
Biden administration officials said last month they would not challenge the 9th Circuit’s Rosemont ruling but the U.S. Interior Department’s solicitor general issued a new opinion on the reach of the mining law and the bureau submitted additional evidence it says satisfies the requirement that valuable minerals exist where the waste dump is planned.
The Western Watersheds Project, Great Basin Resource Watch and other environmental groups suing to block the mine disagree.
“The BLM has admitted that the Thacker Pass mine will have multifaceted impacts to groundwater, sage grouse, golden eagles, wetlands, visual and other resources, yet permitted the project based on a flawed environmental review,” said Kevin Emmerich, co-founder of Basin and Range Watch, another Nevada-based plaintiff.
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The conservationists’ lawyers going before the court on Tuesday said in recent filings that the new evidence is inadequate and wasn’t part of the overall plan the Bureau of Land Management approved.
Although Du refused to grant the injunction, her ruling invalidated the overall plan of operation for what “is now an incomplete … illegal mine,” they wrote. “BLM’s new and rushed … determination cannot cure BLM’s error.”
LARAMIE, Wyo. (AP) – Obi Agbim had 18 points in Wyoming’s 66-63 victory against Nevada on Saturday night.
Agbim went 7 of 12 from the field (4 for 7 from 3-point range) for the Cowboys (8-5, 1-1 Mountain West Conference). Touko Tainamo shot 3 of 6 from the field, including 2 for 3 from 3-point range, and went 7 for 8 from the line to add 15 points. Dontaie Allen finished 3 of 3 from 3-point range to finish with nine points.
Nick Davidson finished with 15 points, six rebounds and two blocks for the Wolf Pack (8-5, 0-2). Nevada also got 15 points and three steals from Kobe Sanders. Justin McBride finished with 11 points and three blocks.
Agbim put up seven points in the first half for Wyoming, who led 26-24 at the break. Wyoming used an 8-0 second-half run come back from a three-point deficit and take the lead at 41-36 with 12:17 remaining in the half before finishing off the victory. Tainamo scored 13 second-half points. Davidson missed a potential go-ahead 3-pointer with 7 seconds left and Nevada trailing 64-63. Tainamo made two free throws with 2 seconds left to finish off the win.
Nevada will try to pick up its first conference win in a place the Wolf Pack basketball team has struggled.
Nevada (8-4 overall, 0-1 MW) travels to Laramie, Wyoming to face the Cowboys (7-5, 0-1) at 1 p.m. Saturday. To pick up a win, they’ll need to continue their hot shooting and find a way to slow down Wyoming’s Obi Agbim.
Watch the game on KNSN or listen on the radio at 95.5 FM.
Nevada is coming off a 66-64 loss to Colorado State. The Cowboys are coming off a win over Cal State Fullerton, 73-69. Nevada has not won in Laramie since February 25, 2020 —that one a 73-68 win.
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Nevada is shooting 49.6 percent from the field and 41.6 percent from 3-point range, leading the MW in both. The Pack ranks fifth in the nation from behind the arc.
Nevada is grabbing 34.7 rebounds per game to rank ninth in the conference.
Kobe Sanders leads the Wolf Pack in scoring at 15.2 points per game. He is shooting 44.7 percent from behind the arc with 17 makes. Nick Davidson adds 15 points per game and leads the team with 6.4 rebounds per night. He is shooting 53.6 percent from the field. Tre Coleman adds 9.3 points per game and is second on the team with 50 assists behind 56 from Sanders. The Cowboys are shooting 47.1 percent from the field and allowing opponents to shoot 42.8 percent. Wyoming is shooting 34.3 percent from behind the arc with 7.6 makes per game.
The Cowboys are led in scoring by Obi Agbim at 18.9 points per night, second in the MW and No. 39 in the nation. He ranks second in the MW shooting 53.7 percent from the field and leads the conference shooting 47.8 percent from behind the arc. Kobe Newton adds 10.2 points per game and Jordan Nesbitt adds 9.9 points per game. He leads the team with 8.4 rebounds per game for fourth in the MW.
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The series
The Cowboys lead the all-time series 21-10 with Nevada with the first meeting coming back in 1938. The Cowboys hold a 13-5 lead in the series in Laramie.
San Jose State Spartans (7-6) at Nevada Wolf Pack (5-8)
Reno, Nevada; Sunday, 4 p.m. EST
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BOTTOM LINE: San Jose State visits Nevada after Sofia Kelemeni scored 27 points in San Jose State’s 100-44 win against the Bethesda (CA) Flames.
The Wolf Pack have gone 4-3 in home games. Nevada is seventh in the MWC in rebounding with 32.2 rebounds. Lexie Givens paces the Wolf Pack with 6.2 boards.
The Spartans are 1-2 on the road. San Jose State is 1-0 in games decided by less than 4 points.
Nevada’s average of 6.2 made 3-pointers per game this season is just 0.1 fewer made shots on average than the 6.3 per game San Jose State gives up. San Jose State’s 40.7% shooting percentage from the field this season is 2.7 percentage points lower than Nevada has allowed to its opponents (43.4%).
The Wolf Pack and Spartans meet Sunday for the first time in conference play this season.
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TOP PERFORMERS: Dymonique Maxie is averaging 6.6 points and 1.8 steals for the Wolf Pack.
Rylei Waugh is averaging 7.2 points for the Spartans.
LAST 10 GAMES: Wolf Pack: 4-6, averaging 68.5 points, 34.3 rebounds, 12.3 assists, 7.6 steals and 1.7 blocks per game while shooting 38.1% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 67.5 points per game.
Spartans: 5-5, averaging 64.4 points, 34.1 rebounds, 13.9 assists, 6.8 steals and 2.0 blocks per game while shooting 40.2% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 64.1 points.
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
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