Residents concerned over new lithium mining claims popping up in Amargosa Valley

AMARGOSA VALLEY, Nev. (KTNV) — Situated next to Death Valley south of I-95 is the Amargosa Valley. It's an unincorporated town that has a post office, a dairy, about 1,400 people and desert as far as the eye can see.

“It hasn’t changed much, population is about the same, businesses have come and gone, but we do have a lot coming at us. It’s going to change our lifestyle and not for the better," said Mike Cottingham, who serves as the town clerk.

Cottingham told Channel 13 he's keeping tabs on what he says is a developing concern: new mining claims popping up on the backroads of the community.

Here's what Cottingham and others are seeing — wooden stakes about a yard high hammered into the ground, at the top is a tube with a rolled-up piece of paper — it's the only notification some residents say they received about new plans for lithium exploration. An 1872 federal mining law makes this possible.

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“It’s part of my responsibility as we receive notices that they were going on, it’s our job to protect our resources, you know, protect our lifestyles, protect our water," Cottingham said.

"Water is huge out here in the desert. Our water tables have gone down 45 feet in the last 18 years, and without it, we just dry up and blow away."

WATCH | Mike Cottingham shows Geneva Zoltek the mining stakes planted throughout the land.

Others in the town, echo those concerns.

“Nobody came and talked to us, no one let us know they were going to do that,” Joe Angle - who's been an Amargosa Resident for 17 years - told Channel 13

“We’ve got good water, but if you uncork it and turn the water on, we run out in nine minutes. And to drill our well deeper is a $20,000 bill," Angle continued.

Groundwater from the Amargosa River Basin has decreased in recent years, but it’s the future that these residents are worried about.

“You destroy the land to build cars, how green is that?" Judy Faber, "It’s a lithium boom.”

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Last year, the U.S. Department of Energy identified 18 critical minerals necessary for clean energy technologies meant to curb carbon emissions.

“The state of Nevada is really poised to be a leader in mining, especially critical minerals," Amanda Hilton, Nevada Mining Association President, told Channel 13.

She said four of those minerals are produced in-state; “barium, lithium, magnesium and copper.”

Rover Critical Minerals, a Canadian mining company that is not a member of the association, owns the new claims popping up in Amargosa Valley. CEO Judson Culter said a portion of the publically traded company is American owned.

"We see ourselves as more of a domestic, critical minerals supplier," Culter said.

The company recently caught heat over an exploratory lithium mining proposal "LGL - Let's Go Lithium" that was submitted to the BLM. Conservationists have pushed back, saying the project proposal is too close to Ash Meadows, home to endangered pupfish species.

Culter said two ongoing projects are intended for exploratory drilling of lithium — "LGL" and "Long Street Project" — which are about three miles apart.

“We’ve done enough work at surface to know that there is lithium in the area," Culter said. "We're taking it really serious, the groundwater and the hydrogeology, and we've spent big, big money by not skimping on environmental," Culter said.

Culter said he views new mining operations in the Amargosa Valley as a job creator for the community, and that a new plan of operations for "LGL" is expected to be released towards the end of the summer.

"We look to find projects that can benefit a local community in terms of employment," Culter said.

But many residents and conservationists still want the company to pack up the stakes, saying they're lobbying Washington D.C. for a total ban on new mining projects in the area.

This letter signed by multiple Nevada Congress members urges the Department of the Interior to put a mineral withdrawal into place.