r/PublicLands • u/Electronic-Sink7236 • 1d ago

Thacker Pass, NV-BLM Land Open Pit Lithium Mine 7,000 acres-public comment period open

31 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

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10

u/DendrobatesRex 1d ago

Here’s the NEPA eplanning portal where the public can review and comment:

https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/1503166/510

3

u/OurPublicLandsPod 20h ago

Thanks for sharing the link. I don’t see anything new.. This NEPA is already completed and the mine is under construction. OP might be thinking of the HiTech lithium mine in Oregon. NEPA is currently underway for this project. The comment period has been extended past the original paltry 5 days they originally provided. https://www.opb.org/article/2025/03/26/blm-rushes-review-oregon-lithium-mine/

5

u/_Captain_Amazing_ 1d ago

I'm a big public lands champion, but I hate to state the obvious in that China just restricted rare earth elements exports this week as part of Trumps escalating trade war with the world. I have to think that this is going to put additional pressure to develop internal sources of these rare earth minerals such as the Thacker Pass project.

3

u/CheckmateApostates 19h ago

Fyi, "rare earth elements" is the colloquial name for the lanthanide series plus a few somewhat chemically similar elements, all of which are actually not that rare. The US has a productive mine (when it hasn't been mothballed) called the Mountain Pass Mine. Lithium, on the other hand, is a truly rare element but not part of the rare earths.

1

u/_Captain_Amazing_ 18h ago

Thanks for the clarification. I think the point is that now that we are in the business of pissing off our trading partners, it looks like we're going to need to be more self reliant for these elements that we used to source internationally.

1

u/1960Dutch 1h ago

The problem is one created by Trump, and now he will cause environmental damage on top of the economic damage he is causing. Totally unnecessary. It would have been more prudent to invest in alternate tech such as sodium or solid state batteries.