2023-10-19 08:00:00
In northern Nevada, very close to the border with Oregon, stretches of plains enclosed between mountains are still virgin.
For the moment.
Indeed, beneath this clay soil lies the largest lithium reserve in the United States. Classified as being essential to the ecological transition, rare earths like these have become the object of much desire.
The Canadian company Lithium Americas plans to exploit this deposit, the net value of which would be 5.7 billion US dollars after tax. General Motors has also invested 660 million US dollars in this project.
Non-natives, breeders and indigenous people of the region have joined forces to oppose this project, which they describe as an aberration. Near the site, they established camps, the last of which was dismantled in June following a police raid.
This opposition succeeded in postponing the start of construction of the mine and its factory, which should have started in 2021. Finally, earthworks began this summer.
Since this event, seven opponents have been prosecuted by the mining company.
A breeder, four environmental groups and two other indigenous communities have initiated legal proceedings. They won their case.
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Thacker Pass, in northern Nevada. (Archive photo)
Photo: Radio-Canada / Émilio Avalos
Indigenous people and environmental groups want the outright cancellation of the permit issued to Lithium Americas for its project.
The indigenous communities of Reno-Sparks, Burns Paiute and Summit Lake Paiute have filed their own lawsuit.
Michon Eben, culture and resources program manager and Tribal Historic Preservation Office, is a member of the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony community.
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Lithium comes in various forms.
Photo : Americas Lithium
People did not understand that we were getting involved in this issue, because they believe that we are far from the project, she explains in an interview, since the location of the mine is approximately 500 kilometers north of Reno. Just because it’s far from where we live now doesn’t mean that place doesn’t represent who we are.
This is forgetting the vast territory occupied by the indigenous nations of Nevada and neighboring states before the arrival of settlers, according to her. This forgets the links that communities have also forged between themselves over the centuries.
Ms. Eben reports on the mining boom hitting Nevada: 22,000 mining claims specifically devoted to lithium, she says.
According to the Nevada Division of Minerals, as of September 8, the state had exactly 21,425 lithium mining claims.
The problem is that the Aboriginal people feel that they have not been consulted as they would have liked to be by the office responsible for issuing permits, the Land Planning Bureau. Michon Eben assures that no representative of Lithium Americas came to meet them since it is a responsibility of the Land Planning Office.
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The site of the future mine is located very close to the border with Oregon.
Photo : Americas Lithium
These consultations, according to Ms. Eben, came down to three letters sent in the middle of a pandemic.
Contacted by Indigenous Spaces, Lithium Americas defended itself. In October 2022, we signed a Community Benefits Agreement with the Tribe [le mot tribe est utilisé aux États-Unis, NDLR] of the Paiutes and Shoshone of Fort McDermitt, the tribe closest to Thacker Pass, says Virginia Morgan, investor relations manager.
This agreement was denounced in particular by Shelley Harjo, a member of the Fort McDermitt community.
It’s not because the tribe [sic] of Fort McDermitt seeks economic benefits from [la minière] that most Native people support the desecration of Thacker Pass. That doesn’t even mean most of the Fort McDermitt tribe supports her, she wrote in an open letter published in a Nevada media outlet.
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Construction work has started at the mine site. Lithium Nevada Corporate is the subsidiary of this Canadian mining company.
Photo : Getty Images / gchapel
She believes her community is hard to blame in this deal since they are poor. But when you think about it, sacrificing the earth for a little money is exactly how we ended up in the environmental predicament we’re in now, she said.
Her position was denounced by the band council, which indicates that Ms. Harjo does not live in the community and therefore does not know what she is talking about.
A massacre in 1865
If Ms. Harjo speaks of desecration, it is not without reason.
In 1865, a massacre was carried out on these lands. More than 30 people (men, women and children) from the Paiute Nation were killed by U.S. federal soldiers.
This historical event seems to have been ignored by the defenders of the project, even though it is here that several ancestors of these Aboriginal people rest.
The communities of Reno-Sparks and Summer Lake Paiute want Thacker Pass to be recognized as a cultural site.
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Numerous massacres occurred in the northwest United States in the mid-19th century.
Photo : Document remis par Reno-Sparks Indian Colony and Summit Lake Paiute Tribe.
Furthermore, the process of issuing the permit lasted nine months, which is too short, according to Ms. Eben, who believes that it takes time to carry out all the studies necessary for the approval of such a project.
We are the ones who pay the price of these environmentally dangerous projects and we have nothing in return, she says.
This project presents a risk for the entire ecosystem of the sector, according to Ms. Eben. Lithium mines require a lot of water, even though Nevada is one of the driest states in the United States, she said.
According to an article from Guardianthe Thacker Pass project is expected to use 5.6 billion liters of water per year to produce 60,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate.
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The mining company, for its part, assures that it is committed to developing Thacker Pass in the most sustainable way possible, by minimizing [ses] impacts on the environment and working closely with local communities.
However, opponents criticize the lies surrounding the electric car, presented as the panacea against the climate catastrophe.
We cannot annihilate a culture, an ecosystem, or dry up our water sources simply so that a few rich people have an electric car.
She believes that this territory will literally be sacrificed for this purpose.
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Michon Eben is not against mines, but she would like things to be done in a more respectful way towards Indigenous people.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Courtesy Michon Eben
Environmentalists are of the same opinion.
The lie is to say that we can save the planet and destroy it at the same time. If it is not green to destroy mountains to extract coal, it is not greener to destroy mountains to extract lithium, one of them explained in a Radio-Canada report broadcast in March 2022.
I want these mining companies to look at better ways to make money. We need to explain to people that electric cars are not going to save the planet from the climate crisis.
Michon Eben, however, insists that she does not present herself as an activist opposed to mines.
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A water source near where the lithium mine will be located. (Archive photo)
Photo: Radio-Canada / Émilio Avalos
I drive a car, I have a phone. I am not against mines, I am against the fact that we do not listen to Aboriginal people, she explains.
What solution, then? The question was asked to him several times. It tires her.
Why are you asking me this question? You have Elon Musk going to Mars, you have all this scientific knowledge and you’re asking me, a natural resources executive, to find the solution to the climate crisis? she says.
Her job is to protect the territory, culture and future of her people.
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