The Bureau of Land Management is gathering community input on a potential 20-year mineral withdrawal for more than 300,000 acres of land. The area, in western Nevada, is within the Amargosa River watershed. It is also at the intersection of the Western Shoshone and Southern Paiutes’ ancestral homelands.
In late February the BLM hosted a public meeting in Amargosa Valley. It drew more than a hundred locals, environmental activists, and rural county officials. All of those who made public comments supported the 20-year mineral withdrawal. It would shield some 480 square miles of Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge from development.
The area is culturally significant to not only the Western Shoshone and Southern Paiute Tribes, but also the Timbisha Shoshone, whose reservation is in nearby Death Valley. The Timbisha Shoshone tribe urges government officials to protect Ash Meadows, arguing they can only survive in their home’s extremely hot, dry climate thanks to the Amargosa River’s groundwater aquifers.
In 2023, the BLM rescinded its approval for Canadian-based Rover Metals’ lithium mining proposal. Opponents subsequently dropped a lawsuit they had filed to block the project. Since January, the land has been on a two-year segregation period, allowing the BLM to study what’s at stake.
Vernon Lee is a member of the Moapa Band of Paiutes. He shares the broader community’s concern about the water consumption involved in lithium mining.
“Everything is like an estuary,” Lee says. “It’s a mecca for all the birds and all the animals and plants, everything is there. Natives count on that, or historically they needed that. There’s food and medicine all over there, and if the water table drops, everything is at risk.”
There are currently nearly 800 mining claims in the area. Jack Hamm owns one of them.
“The impact that me giving them up is pale in comparison to this beautiful place,” Hamm says. “I would be honored to relinquish them in order to support this. And I hope other mining companies would consider the same.”
The nonprofit Amargosa Conservancy also opposes mining in the area. The group’s executive director, Mason Voehl, says he’s optimistic that the science will speak for itself, in favor of the mineral withdrawal.
But Lee, of the Moapa Paiutes, is cautious. In the past, he says, federal agencies in Nevada have not ruled in favor of Indigenous communities.
“So regardless of what the Natives really want to do and try to preserve and live our cultural lifestyle, it's impaired by basically the government,” Lee says.
The public can comment until April 15 on the BLM’s website.
