The Rhyolite Ridge lithium-boron mine project site on Feb. 22, 2024, in Esmeralda County, Nevada. Rhyolite Ridge holds the largest known lithium and boron deposit in North America. (Bizuayehu Tesfaye/Las Vegas Review-Journal/TNS)
Tribune News Service) — An Australian mining company’s lithium-boron mine in Nevada passed all environmental hurdles on Thursday, and an environmental group immediately notified the federal government that it plans to sue.
In a letter to Interior Department officials, the Center for Biological Diversity announced its intention to file a lawsuit, calling the mine an unacceptable threat to an endangered wildflower.
Thursday’s decision marks the Biden administration’s first approval of a lithium mine to date. The mine, which the company says will produce enough lithium to power 370,000 electric vehicles a year, will be the only one in the world to produce both lithium and boron at the same time.
Rhyolite Ridge, as the remote mountain ridge in Esmeralda County is called, is only miles away from the country’s only producing lithium mine at Silver Peak. Thursday’s announcement further solidifies Nevada as a leader for so-called “critical minerals,” or those that the federal government deems in short supply.
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