A huge lithium mine in the Nevada desert has been granted final government approval in a move that is set to quadruple the US’s production capacity.
Lithium is used to make lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and mobile devices and is seen as a crucial part of the US government’s renewable energy plans.
According to Australian operator Ioneer, the new facility at Rhyolite Ridge will produce enough of the rare metal to supply batteries for over 370,000 electric vehicles every year for more than the next two decades.
Acting deputy interior secretary Laura Daniel-Davis said that boosting the domestic supply of lithium was “essential to advancing the clean energy transition and powering the economy of the future”.
The project has been in the offing for nearly eight years, but construction is now set to start in 2025 following approval of the federal permit.
It is the first time that such a permit has been issued under President Joe Biden, whose government made the green transition a key element of its economic policy.
Lithium production is scheduled to start in 2028, once the mine is constructed in the desert halfway between Reno and Las Vegas.
The mine will also process the raw lithium products on-site
As well as mining the raw lithium, the Rhyolite Ridge facility will also feature a chemical processing facility that will process the mineral on-site.
Much of the world’s lithium processing is currently undertaken in China, with supplies of the raw metal shipped to the country to be turned into battery-grade chemicals.
Global demand for lithium is predicted to have grown six times by 2030 compared to the start of the decade.
Ioneer executive chairman James Calaway said that there were few deposits in the world that would be “as impactful” as the one to be mined in Nevada.
Environmentalists have protested against the decision to approve completion of the mine, however.
Rhyolite Ridge is the unique home of a rare plant called Tiehm’s Buckwheat and campaigners say that the mine would destroy its habitat.
The Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management and Fish and Wildlife Service concluded that a revised footprint for the mine meant that it would not jeopardise the survival of the wildflower.
The Center for Biological Diversity said that the final approval was politically motivated and announced its intention to start litigation.
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