Daranda Hinkey, a member of the Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribe, opposes the Thacker Pass project.
Photographer: Daniel MooreNew Energy
The Race for US Lithium Hinges on a Fight Over a Nevada Mine
As the price of the metal — a critical battery component — soars, tribal members, ranchers and activists in Nevada want to block a mine some see as an “environmental nightmare.”
The high-desert mountain pass overlooking alfalfa fields and RV parks doesn’t look like a battleground that will shape the country’s clean energy future.
But when the rock samples here are pulverized, pulled apart and mixed with chemicals, they yield a metal increasingly seen as white gold: lithium, a critical ingredient for batteries used in electric vehicles, solar energy storage, and consumer electronics.