Advocates against the Thacker Pass Lithium Mine must decide what to do next after a judge ruled construction could begin, while rejecting claims the project by Lithium Americas would cause unnecessary harm to the environment or wildlife.
In the only setback for Lithium Americas, Chief Judge Miranda Du of the federal court in Reno, Nevada, ordered the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to determine whether the Vancouver-based company has the right to dump waste rock at the site, just south of Nevada's border with Oregon.
However, Du failed to vacate the 2021 decision by former President Donald Trump to approve the mine, as environmentalists had fought for.
Tribes who consider the site sacred had filed suit to block development of the mine, while regular protests with conservation groups and Native Americans have been held at the mine’s proposed location and in Reno.
Paiute people refer to Thacker Pass as “Peehee mu’huh” which means “rotten moon” to mark an area shaped like a moon where the U.S. Cavlary massacred their ancestors in 1865.
An attorney for the Reno Sparks Indian Colony Will Falk said the tribe had not decided whether to appeal but that regardless the campaign to protect Thacker Pass would move into what he called the next phase. "We're not giving up," he said.
Shares of Lithium Americas have risen substantially this week, while General Motors recently signed a $650 million deal to help develop the project.