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The top lawyer for Lithium Americas’ (TSX: LAC; NYSE: LAC) Thacker Pass project, which is developing the largest lithium deposit in the United States in northwest Nevada, says it could be free of legal challenges by late summer or early fall.
The US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is to hear arguments against the project on Jun. 26 and a ruling could be handed down within a few months, according to Laura Granier, a lawyer with Holland & Hart, which represents Lithium Americas.
“We should probably have a decision sometime this summer,” Granier told the Current Trends in Mining Finance conference in New York on Monday. “Last Friday was the deadline for what we call our friendly court briefs or amicus briefs and there was quite an outpouring of support which is fantastic because this project is so important to our country.”
Vancouver-based Lithium Americas is aiming to mine and process enough lithium carbonate on the Nevada site for batteries to power a million vehicles a year. GM said in January it would invest $650 million in the project and take all the lithium from its first phase of 40,000 tonnes of lithium per year expected to begin in the second half of 2026. Phase two is to ramp up production to 80,000 tonnes a year.
The project is being challenged by environmental groups such as the Western Watersheds Project and Great Basin Resource Watch as well as the Burns Paiute Tribe from Oregon on issues such as community consultations, wildlife, water pollution and air quality.
“The amount of water granted for use in water rights is greater than the basin’s estimated ability to recharge,” Great Basin Resource Watch says on its website. “Potential pollution in both water and air from the processing facility were not thoroughly addressed in the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).
“There are serious concerns about the project affecting wildlife, particularly sage grouse, big horn sheep, pronghorn, golden eagles, Lahontan cutthroat trout and an endemic spring snail species,” the group says. “The Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribe were not adequately consulted during the EIS process.”
Granier said most members of the Fort McDermitt Paiute Tribe support the project.
Also being appealed is how US Federal Court judge Miranda Du in February allowed the project to proceed with construction even after she pointed out issues about where the project should put its waste rock.
The concerns are based on a separate case argued last year about the Rosemont copper project in Arizona. The court in that case ruled that miners don’t have the right to use government land in their project if it doesn’t contain valuable minerals.
Judge Du ruled in February the Federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) must determine if Thacker Pass complies with this Rosemont ruling. Granier said it does.
“The BLM is to consider the evidence in the record, which shows there’s actually widespread mineralization throughout the entire project,” she said. “There’s very likely enough mineralization underneath the waste storage facilities to fix the Rosemont issue as described.”
The project has measured and indicated resources of 385 million tonnes averaging 2,917 parts per million (ppm) lithium for 6 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE). Inferred resources are 147 million tonnes averaging 2,932 ppm for 2.3 million tonnes of LCE.
Granier said the project should be an example for others as the mining industry heats up to supply critical minerals for the green energy transformation because the approval process was fast, transparent and inclusive. The Thacker Pass plan of operations was submitted to the BLM in 2019, an EIS was done the next year and the project was approved in 2021.
“Let me assure you there was nothing rushed about this process,” Granier said. “It was frankly years in the making of environmental baseline information, coordination with federal, state and local agencies engaged in the community, including the tribal community.”
Thacker Pass began its $1.7 billion construction in March on the 24-sq.-km site. Building the mine will create 1,300 jobs and employ 300 during its proposed 46-year life. “This company really has partnered with the communities around it in every way and has really created a blueprint,” Granier said. “Thacker Pass lithium will be a cornerstone of our supply here in the US and globally as well.”
