"Feds approve Rhyolite Ridge lithium mine in Nevada", 25 October 2024

Federal land managers gave their final approval Thursday for a massive lithium-boron mine in Southern Nevada, becoming the first domestic lithium project to get full regulatory approval under the Biden Administration.

Approval for the Rhyolite Ridge Lithium-Boron Project in Esmeralda County comes after a four year federal permitting and environmental review process. During that time, the project also attracted fierce opposition from conservation groups opposed to the mine’s encroachment on critical habitat reserved for the only known population of the endangered wildflower Tiehm’s buckwheat.

Within an hour of the federal decision being posted, the Center for Biological Diversity sent the U.S. federal government a 60-day notice of intent to sue under the Endangered Species Act...

Despite the project area encompassing the only known populations and critical habitat of the threatened plant, the Interior Department’s Fish and Wildlife Service determined that the final mine plan would likely not jeopardize the survival of Tiehm’s buckwheat or adversely modify its critical habitat, if combined with conservation measures outlined by Ioneer.

Federal land managers said Australia-based Ioneer — the company behind the project — has developed protections for the wildflower as part of their plan...

Lithium extraction requires massive amounts of water. Ioneer plans to source water from Esmeralda County’s Fish Lake Valley, an over-appropriated basin. Groundwater in Nevada is not well understood due to the complexity of the region’s aquifers, but over the past 50 years agriculture has reduced groundwater in Fish Lake Valley by up to 200 feet in some areas.

Federal land managers estimate that mining could reduce groundwater in the valley by up to 300 feet around the quarry, and cause the surrounding ground to sink by up to 10 inches, according to the project’s final environmental review...

Construction for the Rhyolite Ridge Lithium-Boron Project could start as soon as next year, while production would begin in 2028, according to Ioneer’s scheduling estimates...