The fate of what would be the largest lithium mine in the U.S. on federal land in Nevada is now in the hands of a federal appeals court.
It's the latest development in a more than two year legal battle over a plan by the Canadian firm, Lithium Nevada, to build an open pit mine near Thacker Pass, along a remote stretch of sagebrush-studded land close to the Nevada-Oregon border.
Initial construction has already begun on the mine after a district court ruling earlier this year upheld a federal plan permitting it. It would become one of the first major domestic sources of lithium, a key component in electric vehicle batteries. But the roughly nine square mile mine would also be on land considered sacred by some Native people.
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