LAS VEGAS— The mining company that touched off a firestorm with its proposal to mine lithium at Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge is walking away from the Nevada project.
Australian mining company Rover Critical Minerals
recently purchased a gold mining project in Brazil. This week it announced it was
changing its name to Stockworks Gold, Inc. The lithium project, which proposed an open pit mine within Ash Meadows’ borders and within habitat for numerous endangered species, has been scrubbed from the website’s project list.
“We’re thrilled that Rover has read the writing on the wall and is giving up on this disastrous project,” said Patrick Donnelly, Great Basin director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Mining near Ash Meadows poses an existential threat to dozens of endangered species and the community that calls this oasis home. The end of Rover’s ridiculous endeavor didn’t come a day too soon.”
In 2023 the Bureau of Land Management approved Rover Metals’ proposal to drill dozens of boreholes next to Ash Meadows. Conservation groups and Tribal and local governments
sued to block the project and two weeks later the BLM
withdrew its authorization.
Rover continued to pursue the project, including holding a raucous public meeting in Amargosa Valley, where townspeople unanimously expressed their opposition to it.
A locally driven campaign to protect the area from mining culminated in the Biden administration
enacting a temporary two-year withdrawal from mining claims while a longer mining ban was considered.
Mining still poses a threat to Ash Meadows. The BLM recently
approved an exploratory drilling project in California just two miles from the wildlife refuge. Belgian mining company Lhoist may be looking to
expand their nearby clay mine in the next year.
“The demise of the Ash Meadows lithium project is a testament to the conviction of the communities of the Amargosa Basin in defense of water, wildlife and home,” said Mason Voehl, campaigns director at the Amargosa Conservancy. “Let this be a clear message to the mining industry: Leave Ash Meadows alone or prepare for a long battle.”
