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U.S. district judge in Nevada largely upheld the federal government’s decision to approve the Thacker Pass lithium mine after challenges from environmental and other groups.
Judge Miranda Ru ruled that U.S. Bureau of Land Management generally didn’t make an error approving the permit for the lithium mine, though she asked the agency to go back to one part of the environmental analysis their decision was based on, according to the court opinion. The case was remanded, but without vacatur of the record of the decision.
“The Court has also determined this is the rare case where remand without vacatur is appropriate primarily because the records suggest BLM could fix the error the Court identifies and Plaintiffs fail in their other legal challenges to BLM’s decision to approve the Project,” Du wrote in her decision. “The Court will remand for BLM to fix the error—to determine whether Lithium Nevada possesses valid rights to the waste dump and mine tailings land it intends to use for the Project. But the Court declines to vacate the ROD pending BLM’s review of the mining plan of operations portion of the Project.”
The ruling is an important for Lithium Americas (NYSE:LAC) as the company wants to be able to start its mining/refining operation at Thacker Pass sooner rather than later. Lithium Americas (LAC) was targeting “early works” construction at Thacker Pass for last year, according to a slide deck from late June.
Lithium Americas (LAC) ticked up 0.2% in after hours trading.
The judge’s ruling comes after she held a hearing on the case about a month ago. Du previously denied a request from a few Native American tribes on a preliminary injunction for the Thacker Pass lithium mine. Previously the judge also ruled that LAC may conduct excavation work at its Thacker Pass lithium mine site in Nevada, denying a request from environmentalists who said the work could harm sage grouse and other wildlife.
The ruling also follows after General Motors (GM) last Tuesday said it would jointly invest to develop the Thacker Pass mine in Nevada, the largest known source of lithium in the U.S. GM (GM) said it will make a $650M equity investment in Lithium Americas (LAC), which the companies said represent the largest-ever investment by an automaker to produce battery raw materials.
Also see SA contributor Long Term Tip’s piece from last week entitled “Lithium Americas: My Favorite Stock For 2023.”
