Arizona tribe fights to stop lithium drilling on culturally significant lands

PHOENIX (AP) — Members of an Arizona tribe are trying to convince a federal judge to extend a temporary ban on exploratory drilling for a lithium mining project near lands that have been the site of religious and cultural ceremonies for centuries.

Hualapai tribal leaders and others are scheduled to testify Tuesday in U.S. District Court before a judge who last month issued a temporary restraining order at the site, which is half the distance from Phoenix and Las Vegas. Protesters are expected to gather outside the courthouse before the hearing.

The case is the latest in a series of lawsuits involving Native American tribes and environmentalists as President Joe Biden’s administration grapples with green energy projects that encroach on culturally significant lands.

The tribe wants a judge to issue a preliminary injunction extending the ban until a hearing on allegations that the federal Bureau of Land Management failed to adequately analyze the potential impacts to the sacred springs, which the Hualapai people call Ha’Kamwe′, meaning hot spring.

According to documents filed in court, these springs have been a place of healing and prayer for generations.

Lawyers for Arizona Lithium Ltd. argued that the tribe’s claims are speculative and that both the federal government and the mining company have presented evidence that lithium exploration is a “compelling public interest in the face of the nation’s efforts to address climate change.”

Arizona Lithium plans 131 drill sites over a nearly square mile (2.6 km²) area to obtain samples. The work will help it determine whether there is enough ore to build a mine and extract a critical mineral needed to make batteries for electric vehicles, among other things.

The largest U.S. lithium mine currently under construction survived legal challenges last year in neighboring Nevada, near the Oregon border. Conservationists and tribes argued that the Thacker Pass project would destroy sacred lands where more than two dozen Native Americans were slaughtered by U.S. troops in 1865.

Federal land managers are also expected to release a draft environmental review of a lithium mine planned by Australian company Ioneer Ltd. between Reno and Las Vegas. No tribe has gone to court over the project, but the Center for Biological Diversity has threatened to resume legal challenges based on threats to the endangered desert wildflower.

In the case of the Hualapai, the Tribe determined that noise, dust, vibration from truck traffic and visual impacts resulting from the planned project would alter the unique and culturally significant setting and could render it unsuitable for cultural and ceremonial purposes.

“Ha’Kamwe’ and the Big Sandy area are uniquely valuable features that are essential to the tribe’s culture. There is no substitute or alternative to Ha’Kamwe’ and the Big Sandy area for the Hualapai people,” attorneys said in a court document filed last week.

Tribal members and attorneys from Colorado-based environmental group Earthjustice and the Western Mining Action Project also argue that approving the exploratory drilling violates the National Historic Landmarks Act and the National Environmental Policy Act.

Government lawyers argue the tribe must show sufficient evidence to show it is likely to suffer irreparable harm.

“On the contrary, an injunction would delay exploration needed to determine whether the lithium deposits in the project area can and should be mined. This would not be in the public interest,” their motion reads.

Among the Arizona Lithium project’s backers is Navajo Transitional Energy Company, which announced in 2022 its plans to join the Australian company and work as a contractor on the project. NTEC said at the time that it would be an opportunity “to expand our role in promoting a clean energy economy.”

In its motion, the Hualapai Tribe argued that federal land managers’ claim that the injunction would delay domestic lithium exploration as the United States moves toward renewable energy sources lacks credibility because any renewable energy benefits from the project are speculative since mining has not yet been proposed.

The tribe also claims that federally required consultations with the Hualapai were thwarted because land managers failed to consider springs in the area that could potentially be exposed.