A proposed lithium mine exploration project in the Oregon portion of the McDermitt Caldera could prove to be fatal for nearby legacy ranching operations.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) informed the public in 2023 of Australia-based HiTech Minerals Inc.’s plan to explore for lithium in Malheur County, OR, in the caldera straddling Oregon and Nevada state lines. If approved, the company will have the ability to drill more than 260 exploration drill sites across 7,200 acres of public lands.
Although the plan has been in the works for several years, the BLM released its environmental assessment (EA) and finding of no significant impact (FONSI) at the end of March, outlining project implications in more detail—including effects on livestock grazing and species like sage grouse and Lahontan cutthroat trout. The public was given just five days to comment. BLM has since quietly extended the comment period until April 25, giving stakeholders 25 more days to submit their input. During the original five-day comment period ending March 31, BLM received more than 1,500 comments.
Plan pushback
The proposal has been rebuffed by ranchers, Native American Tribes and environmental organizations during public scoping periods held since the project’s introduction.
For rancher Nick Wilkinson, the proposed lithium mine hits closest to home—literally, because much of the ranch’s grazing sprawls across the land in question.
The Wilkinson family is no stranger to working with the BLM, having to completely overhaul their operation in order to comply with new species conservation measures in the ’90s.
In 1988, the BLM informed local ranchers of upcoming grazing changes, which affected many permittees and forced some out of business. By 1992, the agency implemented grazing restrictions to protect riparian areas, the Lahontan cutthroat trout and sage grouse. The ranch was forced to cut down its animal unit months (AUMs) from 16,500 to just 6,500.
“They didn’t take the AUMs away, but they might as well have, because it limits my grazing,” Wilkinson told WLJ. As a result, the ranch had to undergo a complete transformation, adapting to fish conservation measures and securing additional grazing land.
As the BLM was developing grazing restrictions, central Oregon ranchers Doc and Connie Hatfield brought together a diverse group of stakeholders, ranging from ranchers to environmentalists, to form the Trout Creek Mountain Working Group to collaborate on developing a livestock grazing plan that everyone could support. While the group still exists today, Wilkinson noted that it no longer has the influence it once had to tackle the current challenge posed by the mining proposal.
Although the group helped shape grazing policies in the early ’90s, regulatory enforcement remained strict. Shortly after the new restrictions were implemented, BLM went so far as to send an armed officer to the ranch after Wilkinson plugged a trough overflow with his t-shirt to store extra water for cattle. Wilkinson was threatened with arrest, the loss of his grazing permit and a ban on ever running cattle there again, in the name of Lahontan cutthroat trout conservation.
Now, decades later, he can’t help but notice how the government can suddenly reverse course; while he once faced severe consequences for storing a little extra water, mining companies proposing massive disturbances seem to receive far less scrutiny.
“I’ve changed my operation from night and day from the way my dad ran it,” Wilkinson said, “and it cost a lot of money to make it what it is today. And now that we’ve finally got on our feet and rolling to where it is a good operation, nobody cares about the fish or the sage grouse anymore.”
Wilkinson has long adapted to living alongside the species. “I’ve been protecting them for 30 years,” he said. “Why wouldn’t I enjoy them?”
While the ranch has been required to conduct an environmental impact statement (EIS) for any improvement or plan that might disturb the fish or sage grouse, he noted that the same standard does not appear to apply to the mining company, which was only required to complete an EA and a FONSI. Wilkinson also questioned how BLM determined there would be no significant impact despite the hundreds of proposed drill sites.
“I wish the company would just say to me, ‘Yeah, we’re going to have a lot of impact and we’re going to help you out however we need to so we can coexist,’” Wilkinson said, acknowledging that the land is multiple use. “That, I could live with.”
But, “I’m afraid that after being a fourth-generation rancher, my son being the fifth and his two little boys the sixth, we won’t be here much longer,” he said.
The project’s plan of operations alone could devastate the family’s ranching legacy, let alone if the lithium mine goes into full production, Wilkinson said.
“I realize they have a right to be out there,” he said, “but they don’t have the right to break a sixth-generation ranch just because.”
And this project isn’t the only one threatening the family’s livelihood. Two other proposed mining projects would directly impact the ranch’s permits. While these additional projects aren’t as far along in the planning process as HiTech Minerals’ plan, Wilkinson believes their approval is inevitable if the HiTech Minerals’ plan is able to move forward.
If drilling plans are approved, there will be no grazing land left for the cattle. The caldera, the ranch’s primary grazing area, will be covered with drill sites, while the higher-elevation pastures remain restricted by fish conservation regulations.
Wilkinson emphasized the greater need for collaboration, noting that past challenges were overcome by open communication and compromise.
“I just want people to come to the table and have some sort of collaboration to figure this out,” Wilkinson said. “That’s the problem with this: the way it was done. There needed to be collaboration and people sitting at the table to meet each other in the middle.”
He continued, “That I’m good with, because I’ve dealt with a lot of that for the fish and sage grouse and I’m still here. And it was always through collaboration that got it done; I never got anything done in my life by jamming it down somebody’s throat.”
With the future of his family’s ranch at stake, he hopes a collaborative approach is still an option for the future of the mining proposal.
To view the EIS or FONSI, or to submit comments, visit eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/2025844/570. — Anna Miller, WLJ managing editor
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