The Thacker Pass Lithium Mine is a proposed mine in Northwestern Nevada, United States of America, by the company Lithium Nevada, a subsidiary of Lithium Americas. It is expected to destroy critical wildlife habitat, cause groundwater contamination anticipated to persist in excess of 300 years if not actively treated indefinitely, draw roughly 9% of the available water in a basin with no water to spare, disrupt the nearby agricultural community's ability to carry out their livelihoods, and destroy a significant cultural area/sacred site of the Paiute [1] [12].

The mine was fast-tracked, meaning it took much less time to go through the permitting process by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (and consequently was less thoroughly analyzed for the impacts it would have on the ecosystem and nearby communities). This is likely due to the global push of urgency for renewable energy technologies and from Former President Donald Trump’s Executive Order that streamlined the permitting of minerals in the United States[1] [2] [4]. Protesters have been occupying the site since the Bureau of Land Management issued its final record of decision for the mine [4]. According to protesters, Bureau of Land Management violated at least five provisions of the National Historic Preservation Act (section 106), including adequately consulting with tribes about the mine project [12]. 

Atsa Koodakuh wyh Nuwu (People of Red Mountain) are a group of Fort McDermitt tribal descendants that deeply oppose the Lithium mine. Atsa Koodakuh wyh Nuwu continue to practice traditions, language, hunting and gathering of first foods, medicines, and materials, knowledge and teaching. For them, ceremonies, culture and philosophy are inseparable from the land. Thus, by protecting the land, they protect culture. In addition, Peehee Mu'huh has sacred burial sites with utmost respect for Koodakuh wyh Nuwu [12] [13].

The affected agricultural communities are generally concerned with many outright opposed to the project since the very early stages. Despite these deep and evident community concerns, the mine was still rushed through permitting during the COVID-19 pandemic when many of these directly affected individuals were unable to access or participate in person in the public processes typically required for permitting. Therefore, it was permitted despite clear and strong opposition from the local, rural, agricultural communities of Orovada and Kings River Valley and in a manner unacceptable and not aligned with the intent of the National Environmental Policy Act [1] [2]. 

Furthermore, the mine was permitted without proper consultation or consent from the Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribe and other potentially affected Tribes. The “treatment plan” for cultural mitigation of sites was developed without consulting the Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribe, which is in violation of Fort McDermitt’s rights under Section 106 that require identification and mitigation of sites to involve the affected Tribe/s.

Additionally, there are at least two other Tribes in the region who could be affected by the mine’s operations and still have not been contacted for consultation. Despite the startlingly large number of cultural resources scheduled for removal and the fact that the proposed mine site is in the spot of a massacre of Paiute people, the company and government have severely failed in proper consultation and have not gained the Free, Prior, and Informed consent for the mine. Atsa koodakuh wyh Nuwu – a group of tribal descendants from the Fort McDermitt Paiute Shoshone Tribe who want to collectively stand up against destruction of land, water, air and life on ancestral homelands such as Thacker Pass – have formed in recent months in strong opposition to the mine [1] [4]. 

 Although the mining company touts the project’s importance to the energy transition and economy, people in the directly affected agricultural community do not feel they will reap any of these benefits themselves. In fact, many feel strongly that the mine will be a detriment to them economically because the pollution and drop in water table could deeply harm their ability to continue their current livelihood of farming and ranching. Furthermore, Lithium Nevada has advertised and displayed the mine as “green” because they are mining for lithium [1]. However, the pollution to air through the sulfuric acid production plant and other mine operations and water (possibly intergenerationally polluted), and the direct harm it will have on the area’s wildlife, are severe.  

After the Record of Decision was signed by the Bureau of Land Management approving the Thacker Pass mine in January 2021, many forms of grassroots resistance to the mine began [1] [3]. Protesters started an encampment at the site of the mine, sharing rhetoric and intent to stop its construction with direct action. A coalition of environmental and public interest organizations (Great Basin Resource Watch, Western Watersheds Project, Basin and Range Watch, and Wildlands Defense) filed a lawsuit against the federal government over the mine’s Environmental Impact Statement and Record of Decision on February 26th, 2021. A local rancher also filed a lawsuit against the federal government over the mine and personal harm he will experience from it [6] [7]. In April 2021, the Fort McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone Tribe cancelled their Project Engagement Agreement with mining company Lithium Nevada, citing threats to land, water, wildlife, hunting and gathering areas, and sacred sites. Around that time, Atsa koodakuh wyh Nuwu traditionalists group formed out of descendants from the Fort McDermitt Paiute Shoshone Tribe, and the Thacker Pass Concerned Citizens group, formed out of the agricultural communities in Kings River Valley, Orovada, and the surrounding areas [2].

The leased area, at that time, included the entirety of the mineralized zones in Thacker Pass and the Montana Mountains with a total of 1,378 claims that covered more than 11,000 ha.

The Thacker Pass Project area now encompasses approximately 3,367 ha including:

An open pit which would be roughly one mile across (1.6 km), two miles wide (3.2 km) and 120m maximum depth.

A processing plant using 2,900 tons of sulfuric acid per day to convert molten sulfur into sulfuric acid to leach the lithium from clay stone.

Hundreds of tons of Sulfur (waste from Oil Refineries) will be trucked in and burned every day at the mine site (roughly 75 semi loads of sulfur a day). This in turn will produce thousands of tons of Sulfuric acid every day, up to 5800 tons a day.

The project contemplates initial Phase 1 production capacity of 30,000 tpa of battery-grade Li2CO3 (lithium carbonate equivalent) commencing in 2022 and increasing in Phase 2 to 60,000 tpa in 2026.

Lithium is present at 2000-9000 ppm (0.2-0.9%) Producing one ton of lithium will require strip mining and processing between ~110 and 500 tons of Earth.

Mineral reserve: 3.1 million tonnes of LCE at 3,283 ppm Li

Lifetime of 41 years (could be extended with future expansion, as the company holds a large number of other mining claims in the area)

The mine would burn around 11,300 gallons of diesel fuel per day.

Plans to extract more than 5000 acre-feet (1.7 billion gallons) of water annually from an aquifer in the Quinn River Valley which is already over-allocated by more than 30,000 acre-feet per year.

The company estimates that, when the mine is fully-operational, it will produce 152,703 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions every year.

[5] [14] [15]