Controversial Lithium Mine Moves Forward in Nevada
Molly Taft
Fri, March 3, 2023
A geologist points to an area for future development in
Molly Taft
Fri, March 3, 2023
A geologist points to an area for future development in
Thacker Pass in this photo from 2018.
Construction began this week on a controversial lithium mine in Nevada after a federal appeals court denied an 11th-hour attempt to halt the project.
In a decision issued Wednesday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court denied an appeal filed Monday by Western Watersheds Project, longtime opponents of the mine, that would have temporarily halted construction on the Thacker Pass mine in Nevada. In a press release, the project’s owner, Canada-based Lithium Americas Corp, announced that it officially broke ground on Wednesday.
Why is lithium important?
The mine site covers one of the largest deposits of lithium in the U.S., and General Motors this year invested $650 million in the project, which will become North America’s biggest lithium mine. Lithium is a crucial component of electric vehicles and batteries; experts expect demand for the material to skyrocket in the coming decades as the world transitions to clean energy. The Biden administration has made expanding the domestic supply of clean energy minerals a priority.
But lithium and other clean energy materials come with a host of problems, including concerns around the environmental degradation that comes with mining as well as overseas supply chains rife with child and forced labor. An analysis released earlier this year calls some of these demand models into question, finding that centering public transit and smaller vehicles in the clean energy revolution could significantly reduce global reliance on these minerals.
What’s going on with Thacker Pass?
The Thacker Pass project has been mired in controversy for the past two years, since the federal government granted a permit for it to move forward. Some Native tribes in the area say the mine is situated on the site of a massacre of more than 30 members of the Paiute Tribe in 1865, making the land a sacred site.
In January 2021, in the twilight of the Trump administration, the Bureau of Land Management fast-tracked final approval for the mine with a surprisingly short environmental impact statement, a move that critics say calls the environmental soundness of the permit into question. But in mid-February, a federal judge issued a ruling saying that the project’s opponents had not yet proved that there were significant environmental issues with the permit, and it allowed construction to proceed while mandating portions of the permit be reviewed. The appeal denied this week was a last-ditch attempt to temporarily pause that decision.
“This massive open pit mine has been fast-tracked from start to finish in defiance of environmental laws, all in the name of ‘green energy,’ but its environmental impacts will be permanent and severe,” Talasi Brooks, a lawyer for the Western Watersheds Project, said in a statement following Wednesday’s decision.
Some of the opposition to the Thacker Pass project has itself been problematic. Last year, E&E issued a blockbuster report finding that one of the green groups helping organize opposition on the ground was extremely transphobic.
Lithium Americas Corp said this week that it expects the Thacker Pass mine to begin producing lithium in the second half of 2026.
Gizmodo
Construction began this week on a controversial lithium mine in Nevada after a federal appeals court denied an 11th-hour attempt to halt the project.
In a decision issued Wednesday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court denied an appeal filed Monday by Western Watersheds Project, longtime opponents of the mine, that would have temporarily halted construction on the Thacker Pass mine in Nevada. In a press release, the project’s owner, Canada-based Lithium Americas Corp, announced that it officially broke ground on Wednesday.
Why is lithium important?
The mine site covers one of the largest deposits of lithium in the U.S., and General Motors this year invested $650 million in the project, which will become North America’s biggest lithium mine. Lithium is a crucial component of electric vehicles and batteries; experts expect demand for the material to skyrocket in the coming decades as the world transitions to clean energy. The Biden administration has made expanding the domestic supply of clean energy minerals a priority.
But lithium and other clean energy materials come with a host of problems, including concerns around the environmental degradation that comes with mining as well as overseas supply chains rife with child and forced labor. An analysis released earlier this year calls some of these demand models into question, finding that centering public transit and smaller vehicles in the clean energy revolution could significantly reduce global reliance on these minerals.
What’s going on with Thacker Pass?
The Thacker Pass project has been mired in controversy for the past two years, since the federal government granted a permit for it to move forward. Some Native tribes in the area say the mine is situated on the site of a massacre of more than 30 members of the Paiute Tribe in 1865, making the land a sacred site.
In January 2021, in the twilight of the Trump administration, the Bureau of Land Management fast-tracked final approval for the mine with a surprisingly short environmental impact statement, a move that critics say calls the environmental soundness of the permit into question. But in mid-February, a federal judge issued a ruling saying that the project’s opponents had not yet proved that there were significant environmental issues with the permit, and it allowed construction to proceed while mandating portions of the permit be reviewed. The appeal denied this week was a last-ditch attempt to temporarily pause that decision.
“This massive open pit mine has been fast-tracked from start to finish in defiance of environmental laws, all in the name of ‘green energy,’ but its environmental impacts will be permanent and severe,” Talasi Brooks, a lawyer for the Western Watersheds Project, said in a statement following Wednesday’s decision.
Some of the opposition to the Thacker Pass project has itself been problematic. Last year, E&E issued a blockbuster report finding that one of the green groups helping organize opposition on the ground was extremely transphobic.
Lithium Americas Corp said this week that it expects the Thacker Pass mine to begin producing lithium in the second half of 2026.
Gizmodo
Staff Writer | March 2, 2023
Landscape at Thacker Pass. Credit: Lithium Americas
Lithium Americas (TSX: LAC) (NYSE: LAC) announced Thursday it has kicked off construction at its 100%-owned Thacker Pass lithium project in Humboldt County, Nevada, following the receipt of notice to proceed from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).
The announcement follows a federal court ruling from February rejecting claims that the project would cause “unnecessary harm to the environment or wildlife”, which delayed the mine’s construction after it was originally approved by former US President Donald Trump in 2021.
Construction commenced following a favorable court ruling in February for the issuance of the record of decision, which confirmed the permitting process for Thacker Pass was conducted “thoroughly and responsibly.”
“Starting construction is a momentous milestone for Thacker Pass and one we have been working towards for over a decade,” Lithium Americas CEO Jonathan Evans said in a news release.
“We are excited about the prospect of generating economic growth in Northern Nevada and playing a major role in the domestic lithium supply chain for electric vehicles.”
Thacker Pass is targeting 80,000 tonnes per annum of battery-quality lithium carbonate (Li2CO3) production capacity in two phases of 40,000 tonnes. Phase 1 production is expected to commence in the second half of 2026. The project is expected to create 1,000 jobs during construction and 500 jobs during operations.
Major earthworks have been awarded, Lithium Americas said, with activities expected to begin in the second half of 2023.
The proposed mine has the potential to be North America’s largest source of lithium for electric vehicle batteries and would support US President Joe Biden’s efforts to reduce dependence on Chinese supplies for the metal.
Measured and indicated mineral resources at Thacker Pass are estimated at 385 million tonnes averaging 2,917 parts per million (ppm) lithium for 6 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE). Inferred resources are 147 million tonnes averaging 2,932 ppm for 2.3 million tonnes of LCE.
In January, General Motors announced that it would invest $650 million in Lithium Americas to help develop the project, the largest investment by an automaker to produce battery raw materials to date.
Shares of Lithium Americas were down 4.3% by 12:15 p.m. ET following the construction announcement, giving the Vancouver-based miner a market capitalization of C$4.2 billion ($3.1bn).
Tesla lobbying to secure lithium from Chile — report
Cecilia Jamasmie | March 2, 2023 |
Tesla executives met last month with Chilean authorities, including the ministers of foreign affairs and mining, as well as representatives for the country’s development agency Corfo, as the electric cars maker redoubles efforts to secure supplies of battery metals, particularly lithium.
The hearings, local newspaper La Tercera reports, also included executives from Albemarle (NYSE: ALB), the word’s top lithium miner and the main competitor of Chile’s SQM (NYSE: SQM) in the Salar de Atacama salt flat, which contains the world’s highest known concentrations of lithium and potassium.
The official minutes of the meeting, disclosed by Corfo, show that Tesla is interested in knowing the agency’s development plans for the sector as well as the opportunities for collaboration with lithium producers such as Albemarle.
Talks come as the Chilean government is planning to take a page out of Mexico’s book and create a state-run lithium company, although authorities are open to let private companies in the sector through tenders.
While the administration has yet to release final details, it has said the proposed national lithium company will seek out minority partners to provide the technical knowledge the government lacks.
Private firms that win tenders may also be allowed to operate individual lithium projects under a minority stake.
The state-run miner’s first main asset would be Codelco’s lithium project at the Salar de Maricunga, a salt flat that hosts Chile’s second-largest reserves of the battery metal.
From mining to refining
Elon Musk wants more lithium, but only a handful of countries can supply the material key to the electrification of transportation.
While Tesla’s chief executive office has hinted in the past that the company planned to get into mining, he now says the firm is more focused on refining lithium than on extracting the battery metal.
The “limiting factor” is refining the metal, not actually finding it, as no country has a monopoly on deposits, Musk said Wednesday during the EV maker’s investor day.
Tesla’s goal is to produce 20 million EVs a year by 2030. It delivering around 1.31 million units in 2022.
Ahead of the 2023 investor day on Tuesday, Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said that Tesla had agreed to build a large factory in Monterrey.
The factory will be one of the country’s first that is entirely dedicated to the expensive and complex process of making electric cars
Cecilia Jamasmie | March 2, 2023 |
Tesla executives met last month with Chilean authorities, including the ministers of foreign affairs and mining, as well as representatives for the country’s development agency Corfo, as the electric cars maker redoubles efforts to secure supplies of battery metals, particularly lithium.
The hearings, local newspaper La Tercera reports, also included executives from Albemarle (NYSE: ALB), the word’s top lithium miner and the main competitor of Chile’s SQM (NYSE: SQM) in the Salar de Atacama salt flat, which contains the world’s highest known concentrations of lithium and potassium.
The official minutes of the meeting, disclosed by Corfo, show that Tesla is interested in knowing the agency’s development plans for the sector as well as the opportunities for collaboration with lithium producers such as Albemarle.
Talks come as the Chilean government is planning to take a page out of Mexico’s book and create a state-run lithium company, although authorities are open to let private companies in the sector through tenders.
While the administration has yet to release final details, it has said the proposed national lithium company will seek out minority partners to provide the technical knowledge the government lacks.
Private firms that win tenders may also be allowed to operate individual lithium projects under a minority stake.
The state-run miner’s first main asset would be Codelco’s lithium project at the Salar de Maricunga, a salt flat that hosts Chile’s second-largest reserves of the battery metal.
From mining to refining
Elon Musk wants more lithium, but only a handful of countries can supply the material key to the electrification of transportation.
While Tesla’s chief executive office has hinted in the past that the company planned to get into mining, he now says the firm is more focused on refining lithium than on extracting the battery metal.
The “limiting factor” is refining the metal, not actually finding it, as no country has a monopoly on deposits, Musk said Wednesday during the EV maker’s investor day.
Tesla’s goal is to produce 20 million EVs a year by 2030. It delivering around 1.31 million units in 2022.
Ahead of the 2023 investor day on Tuesday, Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said that Tesla had agreed to build a large factory in Monterrey.
The factory will be one of the country’s first that is entirely dedicated to the expensive and complex process of making electric cars
.
Albemarle has major lithium projects in Chile’s huge Atacama salt flats, pictured here.
(Image by Valerio Pillar, Wikimedia Commons)
China’s lithium mining likely to face more scrutiny
Reuters | March 1, 2023
Salt Lake in Qinghai, China. (Image by Bfatphoto, Flickr).
China’s lithium mining will likely face disruption as the government steps up scrutiny of a range of problems that have emerged from extracting the metal, experts said on Wednesday.
Yichun, a city in the southern province of Jiangxi, suspended all lithium mining late last week to crack down on criminal activity, such as unlicensed and environmentally damaging mining..
Though at least some mining has resumed, experts said the government was increasing oversight of a sector that has boomed in recent years as lithium prices soared alongside burgeoning demand for battery-powered electric cars.
“Environmental issues and illegal mining are the prominent problems in Jiangxi, where around one third of domestic lithium resource supply comes from,” said Wu Wei, assistant professor at the China New Energy Policy Research Institute of Xiamen University.
“We’re likely to see regular inspections to regulate the industry as an effort for China to enhance its self-supply sufficiency of the metal critical in the new energy transition,” Wu said.
Jiangxi has large reserves of lepidolite, a lithium-containing mineral. But the relatively low grade of lithium in it requires heavy extraction, said Wu.
“The mining and processing also pollute water as a result of its byproducts like tantalum and thallium,” he said.
Yichun’s big miners with valid permits have resumed operations, even as the inspection continues.
“Our production is now normal,” an official at Yichun Tantalum Niobium Mine Company Limited, a major lithium miner and processor, told Reuters on Wednesday.
About a third of the area’s output is still suspended, however, due to a lack of permits, said a Shanghai-based lithium analyst who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.
Yichun’s Bureau of Industry and Information Technology could not be reached for comment.
The investigation comes after a sharp decline in lithium prices, triggered by slowing demand for electric vehicles in China.
Mining in Yichun has boomed in the last two years, growing from a couple of dozen ore selection plants to more than 200, said the analyst, adding that more inspections are likely.
(By Siyi Liu, Ningwei Qin and Dominique Patton; Editing by Robert Birsel)
Reuters | March 1, 2023
Salt Lake in Qinghai, China. (Image by Bfatphoto, Flickr).
China’s lithium mining will likely face disruption as the government steps up scrutiny of a range of problems that have emerged from extracting the metal, experts said on Wednesday.
Yichun, a city in the southern province of Jiangxi, suspended all lithium mining late last week to crack down on criminal activity, such as unlicensed and environmentally damaging mining..
Though at least some mining has resumed, experts said the government was increasing oversight of a sector that has boomed in recent years as lithium prices soared alongside burgeoning demand for battery-powered electric cars.
“Environmental issues and illegal mining are the prominent problems in Jiangxi, where around one third of domestic lithium resource supply comes from,” said Wu Wei, assistant professor at the China New Energy Policy Research Institute of Xiamen University.
“We’re likely to see regular inspections to regulate the industry as an effort for China to enhance its self-supply sufficiency of the metal critical in the new energy transition,” Wu said.
Jiangxi has large reserves of lepidolite, a lithium-containing mineral. But the relatively low grade of lithium in it requires heavy extraction, said Wu.
“The mining and processing also pollute water as a result of its byproducts like tantalum and thallium,” he said.
Yichun’s big miners with valid permits have resumed operations, even as the inspection continues.
“Our production is now normal,” an official at Yichun Tantalum Niobium Mine Company Limited, a major lithium miner and processor, told Reuters on Wednesday.
About a third of the area’s output is still suspended, however, due to a lack of permits, said a Shanghai-based lithium analyst who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.
Yichun’s Bureau of Industry and Information Technology could not be reached for comment.
The investigation comes after a sharp decline in lithium prices, triggered by slowing demand for electric vehicles in China.
Mining in Yichun has boomed in the last two years, growing from a couple of dozen ore selection plants to more than 200, said the analyst, adding that more inspections are likely.
(By Siyi Liu, Ningwei Qin and Dominique Patton; Editing by Robert Birsel)
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