Western tribes' last ditch effort to stall a large lithium mine in Nevada

https://www.npr.org/2023/06/28/ [login to see] /western-tribes-last-ditch-effort-to-stall-a-large-lithium-mine-in-nevada
The fate of what would be the largest lithium mine in the U.S. on federal land in Nevada is now in the hands of a federal appeals court.

It's the latest development in a more than two year legal battle over a plan by the Canadian firm, Lithium Nevada, to build an open pit mine near Thacker Pass, along a remote stretch of sagebrush-studded land close to the Nevada-Oregon border.

Initial construction has already begun on the mine after a district court ruling earlier this year upheld a federal plan permitting it. It would become one of the first major domestic sources of lithium, a key component in electric vehicle batteries. But the roughly nine square mile mine would also be on land considered sacred by some Native people.

Activists from western tribes packed a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals courtroom Tuesday, some wearing traditional regalia, while others stood outside praying and singing.