Press Releases

For Immediate Release, July 1, 2021

Native Community Speaks Out Against Looting of Archeological Sites at Thacker Pass

CONTACT: People of Red Mountain, Max Wilbert

CARSON CITY, NV — Opponents of the planned Thacker Pass lithium mine are speaking out again — this time, against the planned digging up of Native American tools, artifacts, campsites, and potentially even graves on the site of the proposed mine.

Mining company Lithium Nevada has hired Far Western Anthropological Research Group to catalog and dig up cultural sites at Thacker Pass. But mine opponents say that this is “looting” and are planning a rally on Wednesday, July 7th outside the Far Western office in Carson City. Mining opposition groups include Atsa koodakuh wyh Nuwu (the People of Red Mountain), a committee comprised of Fort McDermitt and Duck Valley tribal members, and Protect Thacker Pass, the campaign that started the protest camp on the proposed mine site.

“I will not let these words go unsaid,” says Gary McKinney, a Duck Valley tribal member with lineage tracing back to Fort McDermitt, who is also part of the People of Red Mountain. “The open =-pit mine will be another attempt to erase us and our cultures.

Digging at Thacker Pass could begin as soon as July 29th, when a temporary delay that was jointly negotiated between four environmental groups and the mining company expires. Protesters claim that Far Western is violating ethical behavioral standards for archeological work, and are demanding that Far Western pull out of their contract with Lithium Nevada.

According to the People of Red Mountain, the proposed mine is located on a sacred site. “Thacker Pass is a spiritually powerful place blessed by the presence of our ancestors, other spirits, and golden eagles – who we consider to be directly connected to the Creator,” they wrote in a statement in May.

The location of the proposed mine, north of Winnemucca, is part of the “Whitehorse/Double H Obsidian Procurement District,” and has been frequented by Native American groups for thousands of years. Bureau of Land Management documents claim that there are no graves in Thacker Pass, but oral histories passed down through generations on the Fort McDermitt Reservation tell of a massacre of Native people some 200 years ago on the proposed mine site. The Paiute name for Thacker Pass — “Peehee Mu’huh,” or “Rotten Moon” – derives from that history. “Paiute Shoshone Indians have ties with the location Peehee Mu’huh. Our ancestors perished in these areas,” says McKinney.

The People of Red Mountain assert that “To build a lithium mine over this massacre site in Peehee mu’huh would be like building a lithium mine over Pearl Harbor or Arlington National Cemetery. We would never desecrate these places and we ask that our sacred sites be afforded the same respect.”

The planned Thacker Pass lithium mine already faces uncertainties for an unproven chemical process to separate lithium from the clay soils. Now, the Trump Administration’s decision to “fast-track” the project — and thereby steamroll opposition — appears to have backfired.

The anti-mining campaign at Thacker Pass continues to draw national attention and gain strength. On January 15th, environmental activists determined to stop the project launched the protest camp on the proposed site of the mine. Environmental concerns hinge on drawdown of aquifers, toxification of groundwater, possible toxic waste, potential damage to a federally listed threatened species (the Lahontan cutthroat trout), an extinction risk for the King’s River pyrg, destruction of nearly 6,000 acres of increasingly rare old big sagebrush habitat, disruption of pronghorn antelope migratory routes, and harm to golden eagles and greater sage-grouse.

While some herald lithium as the path to a sustainable future, opponents of the mine look at this as a sacrifice zone for the profits of the car industry. “We want nothing to do with that technological progress,” McKinney says. “Nobody has the right to disturb Native American sites.”

Hundreds of Native people and allies have gathered on the site over recent months to conduct ceremony and express opposition to the mine.

For Immediate Release, June 2, 2021

Contact Max Wilbert via our Contact Form

Opponents of Thacker Pass Lithium Mine Outline Investor Risks

OROVADA, NV — Opponents of the planned Thacker Pass lithium mine released an open letter to the CEO of Lithium Americas and investors today.

The letter slams Lithium Americas for violating indigenous rights and planning to bulldoze sacred sites, and notes that projects facing this much opposition may be a risky investment.

“[R]esearch indicates that investors care about human rights concerns and consultation with indigenous communities,” the letter states. The letter also notes that major lithium purchasers and trade groups such as Ford, BMW, and the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance have expressed that “we don’t want to be party” to indigenous tribes’ rights being violated.

Lithium Americas’ $1.3 billion Thacker Pass mining project, planned for northern Nevada, continues to face serious and sustained opposition, including two lawsuits, water rights challenges, a protest camp at the proposed mine location which has been in place for four and a half months, and indigenous communities outraged about impacts on sacred sites and culturally significant resources.

The planned Thacker Pass lithium mine already faces uncertainties for an unproven chemical process to separate lithium from the clay soils. Now, the Trump Administration’s decision to “fast-track” the project — and thereby steamroll opposition — appears to have backfired.

Atsa koodakuh wyh Nuwu (the People of Red Mountain), a group of traditional indigenous people from the Fort McDermitt Paiute Shoshone Tribe, have stated that “Thacker Pass is sacred to our people.” They assert that “Thacker Pass is a spiritually powerful place blessed by the presence of our ancestors, other spirits, and golden eagles – who we consider to be directly connected to the Creator.”

Hundreds of native people and allies have gathered on the site over recent months to conduct ceremony and express opposition to the mine.

According to Atsa koodakuh wyh Nuwu, Thacker Pass is a massacre site. “The name for Thacker Pass in our language is Peehee mu’huh, which in English, translates to ‘rotten moon.’ Peehee mu’huh was named so because our ancestors were massacred there while our hunters were away. When the hunters returned, they found their loved ones murdered, unburied, rotting, and with their entrails spread across the sagebrush in a part of the Pass shaped like a moon.”

They assert that “To build a lithium mine over this massacre site in Peehee mu’huh would be like building a lithium mine over Pearl Harbor or Arlington National Cemetery. We would never desecrate these places and we ask that our sacred sites be afforded the same respect.”

Others oppose the Thacker Pass mine on environmental grounds, or due to water issues. Last week, four environmental organizations which are suing the Bureau of Land Management for illegally permitting the mine filed an injunction seeking to block Lithium Nevada from beginning destructive activities at Thacker Pass.

The injunction notes that Lithium Nevada Corporation (LNC) “intends to begin ground disturbance as soon as June 23, 2021 consisting of initial excavations and digging associated with a newly approved ‘Historic Properties Treatment Plan’ which has never been submitted for public review.”

The anti-mining campaign at Thacker Pass continues to draw national attention and gain strength. On January 15th, environmental activists determined to stop the project launched a protest camp on the proposed site of the mine. Environmental concerns hinge on drawdown of aquifers, toxification of groundwater, possible toxic waste, potential damage to a federally listed threatened species (the Lahontan cutthroat trout), an extinction risk for the King’s River pyrg, destruction of nearly 6,000 acres of increasingly rare old big sagebrush habitat, disruption of pronghorn antelope migratory routes, and harm to golden eagles and greater sage-grouse.

The protest camp has drawn support from the local communities of Orovada and King’s River, which have expressed determined opposition to the mine in a series of hotly contested public meetings.

In February, local rancher Ed Bartell filed a lawsuit against the Bureau of Land Management alleging environmental reviews for the project were “grossly inaccurate, incomplete, and inadequate.”

The letter released today summarizes the strength of the opposition, and concludes that “Lithium Americas does not have a social license to operate this proposed mine… Failure to obtain the support of local communities creates a financial and political risk for mining investment.”

For Immediate Release, June 1, 2021

Contact Will Falk via our Contact Form

Tribal Members Aim to Stop Lithium Nevada Corporation From Digging Up Cultural Sites in Thacker Pass

Fort McDermitt, Nevada – As soon as June 23, Lithium Nevada Corporation (LNC) plans to begin removing cultural sites, artifacts, and possibly human remains belonging to the ancestors of the Paiute and Western Shoshone peoples for the proposed Thacker Pass open pit lithium mine.

According to a motion for preliminary injunction filed by four environmental organizations in the case Western Watersheds Project v. United States Department of the Interior, LNC intends to begin “mechanical trenching” operations at seven undisclosed sites within the project area, each up to “40 meters” long and “a few meters deep.” The corporation also plans to dig up to 5 feet deep at 20 other undisclosed sites, all pursuant to a new historical and cultural resources plan that has never been subject to meaningful, government-to-government consultation with the affected Tribes or to National Environmental Policy Act analysis.

Daranda Hinkey, Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone tribal member and secretary of a group formed by Fort McDermitt tribal members to stop the mine, Atsa Koodakuh wyh Nuwu (People of Red Mountain) states: “From an indigenous perspective, removing burial sites or anything of that sort is bad medicine. Our tribe believes we risk sickness if we remove or take those things. We simply do not want any burial sites in Thacker Pass or anywhere in the surrounding area to be taken. The ones who passed on were prayed for and therefore should stay in their place, no matter what. We need to respect these places. The people at Lithium Nevada wouldn’t go and dig up their family gravesite because they found lithium there, so why are they trying to do that to ours?”

LNC’s Thacker Pass open pit lithium mine would harm the Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribe, their traditional land, and traditional foods like choke cherry, yapa, ground hog, and mule deer. It would also harm water, air, and wildlife such as sage grouse, Lahontan cutthroat trout, pronghorn antelope, and sacred golden eagles.

Thacker Pass is named Peehee mu’huh in Paiute. Peehee mu’huh means “rotten moon” in English and was named so because Paiute ancestors were massacred there while the hunters were away. When the hunters returned, they found their loved ones murdered, unburied, rotting, and with their entrails spread across the sage brush in a part of the Pass shaped like a moon. According to the Paiute, building a lithium mine over this massacre site at Peehee mu’huh would be like building a lithium mine over Pearl Harbor or Arlington National Cemetery.

Land and water protectors have occupied the Protect Thacker Pass camp in the geographical boundaries of LNC’s open pit lithium mine since January 15. Will Falk, attorney and Protect Thacker Pass organizer, says: “Our allies, the People of Red Mountain, do not want to see their ancestors disturbed and their sacred land destroyed. We plan on stopping Lithium Nevada and BLM from digging these cultural sites up.”

For Immediate Release, April 5, 2021

Contact Daranda Hinkey via our Contact Form

Fort McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone Tribe Cancels Agreement with Lithium Mine, Promising Lawsuit

Fort McDermitt, Nevada — Opposition to lithium mining is growing in native communities in Nevada. On Monday, the Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribe formally resolved to cancel a Project Engagement Agreement with mining company Lithium Nevada, citing threats to land, water, wildlife, hunting and gathering areas, and sacred sites.

The Tribal Council also agreed to initiate a lawsuit against the Bureau of Land Management for violations of federal law in permitting the Thacker Pass lithium mine project to proceed.

These moves, from a tribal council which was previously supportive or neutral towards the mine, come after pressure from traditionalists in the Fort McDermitt community. On March 22, these traditionalists brought a petition to the tribal government asking that they “stop all partnerships with any mining company and to file a lawsuit against Lithium Nevada Corp LNC, Lithium America, Jindalee Resources Limited and any other company associated to stop the development of the proposed Lithium Mine at Thacker Pass, Nevada.”

The group cited violations of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, and other laws.

Opposition to the Thacker Pass mine has been growing since January 15th, when the Bureau of Land Management approved the federal permit for the project and—on the same day—a protest camp was established on the proposed mine site. Members of the Fort McDermitt tribe have played an important role in resupplying and overseeing the camp, which is located on their traditional lands. Over the past two months, community members, elders, families, and spiritual leaders have spent time at Thacker Pass engaging in ceremony, including a 273-mile prayer walk ending at the site, and visitors have come from many nearby reservations.

The Thacker Pass mine is also broadly opposed by residents of Orovada and King’s River, two nearby unincorporated communities. One rancher has filed a lawsuit, citing impacts to groundwater, streams, and to threatened Lahontan cutthroat trout, and a local community group, “Thacker Pass Concerned Citizens,” has formed with the majority of members expressing opposition or serious concerns. A coalition of four environmental groups has also filed a lawsuit against the project, and the group “Protect Thacker Pass” setup the protect camp nearly three months ago.

The lithium industry is booming worldwide as governments shift subsidies towards electric vehicles, which are powered by lithium-ion batteries, and towards wind and solar power which often require battery storage for periods when wind stops and nighttime or clouds block the sun.

There are numerous proposed lithium mine projects in Nevada and the United States. The petition filed Monday night also mentions Jindalee Resources, an Australian mining company currently exploring for lithium deposits just north of the Oregon border, near Fort McDermitt. Another proposed lithium mine located at Rhyolite Ridge, further south in Nevada, has attracted major opposition due to an endangered wildflower on the site.

For Immediate Release, March 22, 2021

Contact Max Wilbert and Nicola Rodriguez via our Contact Form

Vancouver activists occupy Lithium Americas head office today

Vancouver, BC — Activists will be occupying the front steps of Lithium Americas’ head office at 900 West Hastings on Monday, March 22nd from 8:00 am in solidarity with American counterparts aiming to stop an open-pit mine in intact sagebrush habitat in Nevada.

“We want to make the public aware that lithium mining is extremely harmful to nature and even though lithium is an element destined for smartphones and electric cars, it’s extraction is the opposite of sustainable,” explains Nicola Rodriguez of Surrey.

The Thacker Pass mine proposal, located roughly 130 miles northeast of Reno, is one of a handful of large mining and energy projects fast-tracked by the outgoing Trump administration in what a December article in the New York Times called an “intense push” to “find ways to increase domestic energy and mining production.”

The Vancouver activists are bringing attention to a permanent protest encampment at the proposed $1.3 billion Lithium Americas mine site in Nevada, which is set up with tents, a wood stove and protest signs. “Canadians should know about this company, what they’re doing to a pristine ecosystem, and how their neighbours are resisting it,” adds Rodriguez.

Resistance to the project from Indigenous members of the Fort McDermitt Tribe, as well as local ranchers and residents is mounting. Supporters are invited to join the encampment.

Lawyer Will Falk says they mean to stay for as long as it takes to protect this old-growth sagebrush mountainside. “People might be confused about why we want to interfere with the production of electric car batteries,” says Falk. “But it’s wrong to destroy a mountain for any reason – whether the reason is fossil fuels or lithium.”

The Lithium Americas mine will harm Greater sage grouse, Lahontan cutthroat trout, burrowing owls, Golden eagles, native pollinators and Pronghorn antelope, whose migration routes would be severed by the mine. Impacts on human communities include increases in heavy truck traffic, noise and light pollution, air quality issues, and reductions in the water table. Despite Lithium America claims that this will be a “carbon neutral” mine, the project will burn some 26,000 gallons of diesel fuel per day.

Activists are demanding:

1. The establishment of a protected area at Thacker Pass preserved for the enjoyment of future generations, for wildlife and for water quality;
2. An immediate abandonment of the Thacker Pass lithium mine project by Lithium Americas corporation; and
3. A sincere apology from Lithium Americas Corporation for claiming that Thacker Pass is a “green” project.

For more information, to support the campaign, or to join the occupation, visit www.ProtectThackerPass.org. Feel free to reproduce this press release in your publication.

For Immediate Release, January 25, 2021

Contact:  Max Wilbert and Will Falk via our Contact Form

Activists Occupy Site of Proposed Mine That Would Provide 25% of World’s Lithium Supply

Lithium is the miracle element powering your smartphone and under the hood of every electric car. But will batteries save the planet or cause more harm? The controversy is heating up in Nevada.

 RENO, Nevada — Activists aiming to stop Lithium Americas’ Thacker Pass open-pit lithium mine – what would be the United States’ largest lithium mine – launched a permanent protest encampment hours after the Bureau of Land Management gave final approval to the mine on January 15. The Thacker Pass project, located in northwestern Nevada, would provide 25% of the world’s lithium, a key ingredient for electric car batteries.

Despite winter conditions at Thacker Pass, protestors have erected tents, a wood stove, and protest signs. Lawyer Will Falk, who is on site, says they mean to stay for as long as it takes to protect this old-growth sagebrush mountainside.

“Environmentalists might be confused about why we want to interfere with the production of electric car batteries,” says Falk. “But, it’s wrong to destroy a mountain for any reason – whether the reason is fossil fuels or lithium.”

Max Wilbert, another organizer of the protest and author of Bright Green Lies, a book analyzing the environmental harms of renewable energy projects, says: “To protect what’s left of the natural world, we must leave minerals in the ground – not just oil and gas – and learn to live within ecological constraints as respectful members of natural communities. Humans must learn to live with less. Or, we will not live at all.”

Activists will remain in place and block all construction, mining, and road-building activities. They demand:

1. The establishment of a protected area at Thacker Pass preserved for the enjoyment of future generations, for wildlife, and for water quality;
2. Lithium Americas’ immediate abandonment of the Thacker Pass project; and
3. A sincere apology from Lithium Americas Corporation for claiming that the project is “green.”

The Thacker Pass mine proposal, located roughly 130 miles northeast of Reno, is one of a handful of large mining and energy projects fast-tracked by the outgoing Trump administration in what a December article in the New York Times called an “intense push” to “find ways to increase domestic energy and mining production.”

Though Lithium Americas claims it strives “to build a business where the well-being of the local community is essential to its success,” this mine has faced objections from local residents, tribal members, ranchers, and environmental groups, who are concerned about project impacts on wildlife and rural quality of life.

Impacts on the local human community include increases in heavy truck traffic, noise and light pollution, air quality issues, and reductions in the water table. Meanwhile, project documents detail potential harm to many species.

• The threatened Greater sage grouse, whose populations have been reduced by between 97% and 99% from historic levels, and for whom the Thacker Pass area represents the best remaining habitat in Nevada. Thacker Pass is located in the Lone Willow population management unit, which is home to between 5 and 8% of the entire global population. This project would sever a key connectivity corridor between portions of the habitat;
• Lahontan cutthroat trout, a federally “threatened” species under the Endangered Species Act which exists in only a small fraction of its historic range, including the Quinn River basin downstream of Thacker Pass;
• Pronghorn antelope, whose migration routes would be severed by the mine; and
• A critically imperiled endemic snail species known as the Kings River pyrg that is known to reside in only 13 isolated springs. According to one group of scientists, “the Thacker Pass Project area might contain the entire known population of Kings River pyrg,” thereby putting the species at risk of extinction.

Other species who will be harmed by the project include Burrowing owls, Golden eagles, several bat species, native bees and other pollinators, Crosby’s Buckwheat, and rare old-growth big sagebrush.

Lithium Americas plans to build large tailing ponds for toxic waste, drill new wells, build a sulfuric acid processing plant, import more than 170 semi-loads of sulfur (a byproduct from oil refineries) per day, pump 850 million gallons of water annually, and dig an open pit of more than 2 square miles into the Thacker Pass mountainside. Despite Lithium America claims that this will be a “carbon neutral” mine, the project will burn some 26,000 gallons of diesel fuel per day.

Join the Occupation

For more information, to support the campaign, or to join the occupation, visit www.ProtectThackerPass.org. Feel free to reproduce this press release in your publication.

For Immediate Release, January 15, 2021

Contact: Kelly Fuller, Western Watersheds Project

Trump Administration Says Yes to Wildlife Extinction by Approving Thacker Pass Lithium Mine

Reno, Nev.― Today the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) approved the Thacker Pass lithium mine in northwestern Nevada. The mine will strip-mine thousands of acres of important habitat for greater sage-grouse and other wildlife. It could also push a wildlife species that has not been found anywhere else on Earth to extinction.

“Renewable energy and electric cars aren’t green if they destroy important habitat and drive wildlife extinct,” said Kelly Fuller, Energy and Mining Campaign Director for Western Watersheds Project. “The only thing that’s actually green about the Thacker Pass mine is the color of the money the project would make for its wealthy investors.”

Thacker Pass is critically important to wildlife because it connects the Double H Mountains to the Montana Mountains, and provides lower-elevation habitat that greater sage-grouse and other wildlife need to survive the winter. It contains thousands of acres of priority habitat management area (PHMA), the most important type of greater sage-grouse habitat, yet BLM has exempted the mine from many legally required sage-grouse protections. The mine is sited in the danger zone for sage-grouse leks in the Montana Mountains, one of the most important sage-grouse strongholds in Nevada. Local springs are the only place in the world where the Kings River pyrg, a rare type of springsnail, are known to live. The mine could also cut off a pronghorn migration corridor.

“The biodiversity crisis is every bit as dire as the climate crisis, and sacrificing biodiversity in the name of climate change makes no scientific or moral sense,” said Fuller. “Over the last 50 years, Earth has lost nearly two thirds of its wildlife. Habitat loss is the major cause. Humans can’t keep destroying important wildlife habitat and still avoid ecosystem collapse.”

Wildlife at risk from the Thacker Pass mine include greater sage-grouse and other birds that rely on sagebrush, golden eagles and other raptors, Lahontan cutthroat trout, pronghorn antelope, bighorn sheep, pygmy rabbits, and the Kings River pyrg.

Site photo available upon request.

Western Watersheds Project protects and restores western watersheds and wildlife through education, public policy initiatives, and legal advocacy.