Administration Approves Its First New Lithium Mine

For the first time under President Biden, a federal permit for a new lithium mine has been approved. The Nevada project is essential to the president's clean energy agenda, though conservationists promise to sue over the plan they say will drive an endangered wildflower to extinction. Ioneer Ltd.'s mine will help expedite production of a key mineral in the manufacture of batteries for electric vehicles at the center of Biden's push to cut greenhouse gas emissions, administration officials said Thursday in Reno. Acting Deputy Interior Secretary Laura Daniel-Davis said it's "essential to advancing the clean energy transition and powering the economy of the future," the AP reports.

"The process we have undertaken demonstrates that we can pursue responsible critical mineral development here in the United States, while protecting the health of our public lands and resources," she said. Construction of the Rhyolite Ridge mine should start next year in the high desert halfway between Reno and Las Vegas, the Australia-based Ioneer said. Production is scheduled to begin in 2028 at the mine, which officials said should produce enough lithium for 370,000 vehicles annually for more than two decades, per the AP. "I can say with absolute confidence there are few deposits in the world as impactful as Rhyolite Ridge," Ioneer Executive Chairman James Calaway said Thursday.

The Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management issued the permit after the Fish and Wildlife Service concluded—in consultation with the bureau required under the Endangered Species Act—that the mine would not jeopardize the survival of Tiehm's buckwheat. The service added the 6-inch-tall wildflower with yellow and cream-colored blooms to the list of US endangered species in December 2022, citing mining as the biggest threat to its survival. The bureau initiated the mine's permitting process five days later. The agencies say Ioneer's subsequent changes to the mine's footprint alleviated concerns about harm to the flower. Environmentalists said Thursday that the mine's final approval was a politically motivated violation of US laws. The Center for Biological Diversity said in a statement that "litigation is now the only way to stop the Rhyolite Ridge Mine."

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