Lithium Americas Corp., the company working toward developing the Thacker Pass lithium mine north of Winnemucca, announced last week that it has entered a Community Benefits Agreement with the Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribe.
The CBA establishes a framework for continued collaboration and defines the long-term benefits for the tribe, the largest Native American community within the vicinity of the project.
“We are pleased to have the support of the Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribe as we advance Thacker Pass towards construction and look forward to generations of future collaboration,” said Jonathan Evans, Lithium Americas president and CEO. “The signing of the CBA is a testament to our company’s commitment to go beyond our regulatory requirements and to form constructive relationships with the communities closest to our projects. We are focused on being a good neighbor, hiring locally and providing the job training to prepare tribe members for long-term, family-supporting careers critical to developing a North American battery supply chain.”
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Tim Crowley, Lithium Americas' vice president of government affairs and community relations, said this week that Lithium Americas, working in partnership with Cashman Equipment, held another heavy equipment training at the tribe’s reservation this last weekend.
Lithium Americas said the CBA is a product of years of engagement, job training and relationship-building between the company and the Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribe. The CBA states that Lithium Americas will continue to provide additional training and employment opportunities, and the company will support cultural education and preservation.
Also, Lithium Americas has agreed to build an 8,000 square foot community center for the tribe that includes a daycare, preschool, playground, cultural facility and communal greenhouse to support reclamation efforts and provide income for the tribe.
Over the summer, Far Western Anthropological Research Group Inc., with oversight and assistance from tribe members, completed cultural work on approximately 13,000 acres at Thacker Pass. Lithium Americas stated that the work was a key requirement from the National Environmental Policy Act process and found no areas of archeological significance at the Thacker Pass project.
Lithium Americas has received all the federal and state environmental permits necessary to begin construction and awaits a ruling on the appeal against the Bureau of Land Management on the issuance of the Record of Decision. Following the completion of briefings on Aug. 11, 2022, the U.S. District Court, District of Nevada has scheduled an oral hearing for Jan. 5, 2023.
“The ruling on Thacker Pass’ ROD represents the final regulatory hurdle to move forward the largest and most advanced lithium chemicals project in the U.S.,” Evans said.
Crowley said there was some optimism that a decision would be rendered soon after the Aug. 11 briefings, but a sixth-month wait is pretty standard for these kinds of decisions.
“So January 5th is fine,” Crowley said. “We’re delighted that we’re going to get our day in court, and we’re prepared.”
The federal Record of Decision, a major step in the approval of the mine, was issued by the Humboldt River Field Office of the Bureau of Land Management on Jan. 15, 2021.
Great Basin Resource Watch, Western Watersheds Project, Basin and Range Watch, and Wildlands Defense filed a challenge to the ROD on Feb. 26, 2021.
“In the rush to implement the project, defendants violated federal environmental statutes and swept under the rug the mine’s serious environmental impacts,” the filing said.
Crowley pointed out that the two tribes that have signed on to the appeal to the Thacker Pass Record of Decision — the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony and the Burns Paiute Tribe — are both a long way from the Thacker Pass site.
“The Burns Tribe is right at about 200 miles from us, and the Reno Sparks Indian Colony is 260 miles from our project,” Crowley said.
He said the three tribes that are within a 200-mile radius from the project are not opposed to it.
The Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribe, about 35 miles north of the Thacker Pass site, is the closest to the project.
Crowley said the lawsuits have not slowed the project down and there has been a lot that the company has been working on. They completed their 30,000-square-foot Lithium Technical Development Center in Reno in July. They have been finishing up putting together their financing package, and they have been working on selecting an Engineering, Procurement and Construction Management firm.
“We’re moving forward, full steam ahead,” Crowley said.
“We have a lot of great developments that are going to unfold in the near future.”
