As reported in the Sierra Nevada Ally and by Great Basin Resource Watch:

Today, the Bureau of Land Management and Lithium Nevada Corporation agreed on a court-enforceable stipulation. In the stipulation, the parties agreed that “Neither Lithium Nevada nor Federal Defendants will conduct any ground disturbance activities in the Project area in connection with the Thacker Pass Project as challenged in Plaintiffs’ [Western Watersheds Project, Great Basin Resource Watch, Basin and Range Watch, Wildlands Defense] Complaint before July 29, 2021.”

According to Lithium Nevada, construction work was slated to begin on June 23 of this year.

This is excellent news. But this is no time for complacency! As Thacker Pass land protector Derek Hinkey says: we must concentrate on the next step, our enemy will always loom and threaten our way of life and the ecosystem.

This gives us more time to educate the public about the sacredness of Thacker Pass to the region’s Native American tribes and the harms of Lithium mining. It also gives us time to pressure the government to stop this mine. We still need to keep the pressure on. The fight to stop the Thacker Pass mine will likely be a long one requiring many people.

This is just a temporary reprieve; not a win (yet)! We remind everyone its difficult to win an injunction. So we must prepare for the possibility that the judge will not delay construction beyond July 29. In that case, it will be up to us to stop construction.

We keep going, keep at it, keep calling, keep showing up.