US Lithium Mine Permit Breaches Indigenous Rights

The United States government's decision to permit Lithium Americas to mine at Thacker Pass in Nevada violated Indigenous people's rights, Human Rights Watch and the ACLU said in a report released today. The 18,000-acre mining project is under construction and will extract lithium from one of the world's largest known deposits.

The 133-page report, "'The Land of Our People, Forever': United States Human Rights Violations against the Numu/Nuwu and Newe in the Rush for Lithium," found that the US Bureau of Land Management permitted the Thacker Pass mine without obtaining the free, prior, and informed consent of Indigenous people-the Numu/Nuwu and Newe, or Northern Paiute and Western Shoshone in English-in violation of their rights to religion, culture, and to their ancestral lands under international human rights law and standards. While there may be others, at least six Tribes have connection to the land at Thacker Pass.

"The Thacker Pass project shows how US mining laws and the permit process run roughshod over the rights of Indigenous peoples," said Abbey Koenning-Rutherford, Aryeh Neier fellow with the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch. "US federal and state mining agencies should urgently review the regulations governing mine permits to bring them in line with international standards on Indigenous peoples' right to free, prior, and informed consent."

Between September 2023 and January 2025, Human Rights Watch and the ACLU interviewed 41 Indigenous community members, journalists, lawyers, and experts about the impact of the mine. Researchers also reviewed litigation, scientific studies, news and social media, satellite imagery, and environmental maps.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), an agency within the Department of the Interior, when approving the mine on January 15, 2021, stated it had "been in contact with tribal governments regarding this project from its early stages … and throughout the ensuing … process." The extent of its direct contact with Tribes, however, was three rounds of mailings sent to three Tribal governments.

"They keep saying, 'consultation, consultation.' I guess that's what they think they were doing," said a Fort McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone religious and traditional practices leader who requested anonymity. "But they didn't actually do that."

Lithium Americas moved forward despite opposition from at least five Tribal governments, Human Rights Watch and the ACLU found. US courts rebuffed Tribes' efforts to challenge the adequacy of the consultation process after the agency had issued the permit. One, the Fort McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone Tribe, has since signed an agreement with Lithium Americas and issued a letter supporting the mine.

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While the mine is not displacing any of the communities, the construction work has prevented Numu/Nuwu and Newe Indigenous peoples from accessing parts of Peehee Mu'huh, the Indigenous name for land in the area. Access to the land is important for religious and cultural practices. Tribal residents also expressed fears that the mine threatens their rights to health, a healthy environment, and water.

The land around Thacker Pass is particularly significant as it includes areas where people fled and died during an 1865 US cavalry massacre. Tribal members pay tribute to their ancestors, annually commemorate the massacre, and engage in other religious practices on the land.

"Bands of Northern Paiutes, Western Shoshones, and Bannocks have a history with the United States government," said Gary McKinney, spokesperson for People of Red Mountain, an Indigenous rights organization. "That history includes mining, broken treaties, and Indian reservations which were established to assist in unwarranted land degradation caused by mining and livestock grazing on ancestral Paiute, Shoshone, and Bannock hunting and gathering landscapes."

The outdated 1872 mining law gives US citizens, including companies, the ability to claim mineral rights on most federally owned land, the vast majority of which was confiscated from Indigenous peoples. The Thacker Pass mine permit was set in motion, in part, by this 1872 law.

The permit process ran from January 21, 2020, to January 15, 2021, far shorter than the 3.1-year agency average. US President Donald Trump, in his first administration, issued two executive orders calling for streamlined mining procedures.

Toxic waste produced from extracting lithium will be stored in a 350-foot-high mound, called a tailings stack. Great Basin Resource Watch, an environmental watchdog, has warned the stack could result in "a catastrophic failure releasing the toxic tailings to the environment." Lithium Americas stated: "[C]ourts have repeatedly upheld BLM's environmental analysis and the project has also been considered at length and permitted by multiple state agencies … [including] the filtered tailings facility."

BLM has not responded to questions from Human Rights Watch and the ACLU about the permit process. Lithium Americas responded and said: "BLM permitted the Project after years of government-to-government consultation with Tribes in the area, and federal courts have repeatedly upheld BLM's consultation as consistent with federal law." The company described its own "extensive consultation" efforts with the Fort McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone Tribe.

General Motors, a joint venture partner in the mine, told Human Rights Watch and the ACLU that it is "aware of the issues that have been raised.… We incorporated these concerns in our due diligence and investment decision."

Lithium is a key metal for making rechargeable lithium-ion batteries used in electric cars and other technologies.

On taking office for a second time on January 20, 2025, President Trump said it was the policy of the US to become "the leading producer and processor" of minerals. He also instructed the Department of the Interior to "identify all agency actions that impose undue burdens on the domestic mining and processing of … minerals and undertake steps to revise or rescind such actions." Advisers to the new administration in December 2024 reportedly called for fast-tracking mining permits, including by waiving environmental reviews.

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In the absence of stronger protections for Indigenous rights, including the right to free, prior, and informed consent, accelerating and expanding US mineral production threatens the rights of Indigenous peoples to their land, culture, and religion, the ACLU and Human Rights Watch said. The federal government should halt construction at Thacker Pass until it has obtained the free, prior, and informed consent of Indigenous peoples. The US government should also ensure all current and future mine permit processes comply with international human rights standards. The United States should build on the recommendations of a 2023 interagency working group by reforming the 1872 mining law to bring it into compliance with international human rights law, especially the rights of Indigenous peoples.

"The Thacker Pass mine stands as a warning of the risks Indigenous peoples face from such mining," Koenning-Rutherford said. "The United States should respect Indigenous peoples' centuries-long connections to Peehee Mu'huh and act to prevent further harm at Thacker Pass."