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In Nevada, mining companies looking to extract lithium on public lands are trying to work their way around limitations of a 151-year-old mining law, halting the construction of several projects, including the massive Thacker Pass lithium mine.
In a 2022 court ruling known as the Rosemont decision, a U.S. appellate court decided that while the General Mining Law of 1872 allows companies to mine on federal land where economically valuable minerals are present, they do not have the right to dump waste rock on federal land without valuable mineral deposits. Opponents of the ruling have described the decision as a departure from long-held mining practices, while others recognize it as a plain reading of a law that is far too outdated to govern modern mining practices.
“It’s not surprising that a law that dates 150 years is not a law that we should be operating under to address public lands,” said Mark Squillance, a professor of natural resources law at the University of Colorado. “It’s just kind of shocking that nothing has happened yet to deal with this issue. It’s long past time to do so.”
In addition to contesting limitations of the 1872 law, Nevada mining companies are also facing off against the interests of NASA in a House hearing over land in Nye County. In April, the federal government withdrew over 22,000 acres of public lands from mining and drilling because the land has been used to calibrate climate-studying satellites since the 1990s. 3PL Operating Inc., a Nevada-based lithium-mining company, is scheduled to testify against this decision.
BLM Restoration Landscapes: Humboldt O'Neil Basin
In celebration of the Bureau of Land Management’s $161 million investment in Western landscape restoration projects, Look West is highlighting a different "Restoration Landscape" each day for 21 days. Today’s landscape is the Humboldt O'Neil Basin in Nevada. An investment of $6 million will build on the success of collaborative efforts to protect features of this landscape, including high densities of sage-grouse and movement corridors for big game.
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This (river) is the lifeblood of the American West. I think it’s important to recognize that taking more than it gives will only hurt us in the end.”
