Solar Energy News
ENERGY TECH
Huge US lithium mine gets govt approval
Huge US lithium mine gets govt approval
By Romain FONSEGRIVES
Los Angeles, United States (AFP) Oct 24, 2024

An enormous lithium mine in the Nevada desert was granted final government approval Thursday in a project the miner predicts will quadruple US production of a mineral critical to the renewable energy revolution.

Operations at Rhyolite Ridge will produce enough lithium to supply the batteries for more than 370,000 electric vehicles every year, Australian operator Ioneer said.

The plant will create 500 construction jobs over the next few years and 350 jobs during its decades of extraction, the company said.

"There are few deposits in the world as impactful as Rhyolite Ridge," said Ioneer Executive Chairman James Calaway, heralding the permit issued Thursday by the Bureau of Land Management.

The company's managing director, Bernard Rowe, said construction would begin next year.

"This permit gives us a license to commence construction in 2025 and begin our work in creating hundreds of good-paying rural jobs, generating millions in tax revenue for Esmeralda County, and bolstering the domestic production of critical minerals," he said.

The news comes less than two weeks before Americans go to the polls to elect a new president, and will be welcomed in Nevada, where unemployment is well above the national average.

The administration of President Joe Biden has made the green transition a key plank of its economic policy, investing heavily in technologies aimed at slashing the pollution that is causing the climate to change.

Scientists say electric vehicles are a vital link in that chain, and their widespread adoption in the car-dependent US will be vital if the country is to meet its carbon reduction targets.

Biden has tried to nudge the US auto industry to re-tool and shift production away from gas-guzzlers and into electric cars, in a move he says will help create jobs at home.

Subsidies for consumers have rewarded automakers who produce EVs in the United States, even while they struggle to source lithium batteries -- a sector dominated by strategic rival China.

But the project at Rhyolite Ridge has highlighted the trade-off between the need to adapt energy sources and the desire to protect the planet's biodiversity.

Campaigners say the mine will threaten the unique habitat of the endangered Tiehm's Buckwheat -- a rare wildflower with delicate cream-colored blossoms that grows only in this corner of Nevada.

"By greenlighting this mine the Bureau of Land Management is abandoning its duty to protect endangered species like Tiehm's Buckwheat and it's making a mockery of the Endangered Species Act," said Patrick Donnelly of the Center for Biological Diversity, a nonprofit conservation group.

"We need lithium for the energy transition, but it can't come with a price tag of extinction."

Ioneer admits that over the years the mine is in operation around a fifth of the flower's habitat will be directly affected.

But the company, which has spent $2.5 million researching the plant, says mining will not affect its survival, insisting their experiments show it is already growing well in greenhouses.

Related Links
Powering The World in the 21st Century at Energy-Daily.com

Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters
Tweet

RELATED CONTENT
The following news reports may link to other Space Media Network websites.
ENERGY TECH
Eramet suspends battery recycling project in France
Paris (AFP) Oct 24, 2024
French mining firm Eramet said Thursday it was suspending plans to build a battery recycling plant, the second such project in France to fall through in a month as the electric vehicle sector struggles. Batteries for electric cars are packed with costly critical minerals and recycling these to lower costs and make them more sustainable is a key challenge. Eramet was looking to build a facility that would have been able to separate the minerals out from the black powder that used batteries are in ... read more

ENERGY TECH
Baylor engineers introduce ultra-clean biofuel combustion technology

Innovative catalyst converts CO2 to methane using electricity

Construction of largest research facility for e-fuel production begins in Germany

New process converts plant waste into sustainable jet fuel

ENERGY TECH
Humans and AI: Do they work better together or alone?

AI boom unleashes wave of new applications across China

US unveils national security memorandum on AI

CrewMate vehicle shows potential in aiding solar field workers with PV panel installations

ENERGY TECH
On US coast, wind power foes embrace 'Save the Whales' argument

Renewables revolt in Sardinia, Italy's coal-fired island

Government action needed for world to meet renewables goal: IEA

DLR tests innovative sensor system in wind turbine rotor blades

ENERGY TECH
Mercedes reports profit plunge on China woes

Waymo ramps up robotaxi push with $5.6 bn in funding

Indonesia bets on SE Asia's first battery plant to become EV hub

'Significant gaps' remain between China, EU over EV duties

ENERGY TECH
Eramet suspends battery recycling project in France

Fusion energy could play a major role in the global response to climate change

Big increase of zinc battery lifespan could boost energy storage

Huge US lithium mine gets govt approval

ENERGY TECH
Framatome to Supply Nuclear Fuel for Hungary's Paks VVER Reactors

Japan nuclear reactor near Fukushima to restart

Nuclear energy firm Orano halts Niger uranium production

Swedish court grants permit to build nuclear waste burial site

ENERGY TECH
Carbon cuts 'miles short' of 2030 goal: UN

Trees and power lines flattened as Cyclone Dana hits India

World on deadline for carbon-cutting 'quantum leap': UN

70% of Cuba's population has power back after blackout

ENERGY TECH
Adaptability of trees endures through millions of years of climate shifts

EU states approve one-year delay of deforestation rules

Colombia grants Indigenous groups new environmental authority

Indonesia biomass drive threatens key forests and orangutans

Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2024 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. All articles labeled "by Staff Writers" include reports supplied to Space Media Network by industry news wires, PR agencies, corporate press officers and the like. Such articles are individually curated and edited by Space Media Network staff on the basis of the report's information value to our industry and professional readership. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Statement Our advertisers use various cookies and the like to deliver the best ad banner available at one time. All network advertising suppliers have GDPR policies (Legitimate Interest) that conform with EU regulations for data collection. By using our websites you consent to cookie based advertising. If you do not agree with this then you must stop using the websites from May 25, 2018. Privacy Statement. Additional information can be found here at About Us.