On Thursday, March 27th, 2025, The Bureau of Land Management opened a five-day public comment period regarding a proposal from HiTech Minerals Inc. that would build roads and drill hundreds of wells to explore for lithium deposits in the McDermitt Caldera. The McDermitt Caldera in Malheur County is a vitally important habitat and corridor for endangered wildlife species such as the greater sage-grouse, pronghorn antelope, and Lahontan cutthroat trout. It holds historical and cultural significance to the Fort McDermitt Paiute, Shoshone, and Bannock Tribes. The geological region spans both Oregon and Nevada, and communities have been resisting similar destructive lithium mine proposals in Nevada for many years.
The Oregon Chapter of the Sierra Club was appalled to see so little time provided for public comment on an issue that would irrevocably affect the environment of this desert ecosystem. While the Sierra Club supports electrifying transportation and home energy use to address the climate crisis and drive down air pollution, there are better ways to source lithium than blasting open our public lands and the lives that depend on them. We oppose drilling for lithium in the McDermitt Caldera.
The proposal comes from a company named HiTech Minerals Inc. who wishes to modify approximately 100 acres of the McDermitt Caldera. The 100-acre zone would include 267 exploration drill sites across 7,200 acres of public BLM lands. The purpose of the exploration project is to identify locatable lithium deposits for what the project proponent has described as “an absolute monster” project. Just across the border in Nevada, similar projects have drawn opposition from a wide variety of groups including the Atsa Koodakuh wyh Nuwu (People of Red Mountain), who are composed of Fort McDermitt tribal descendants. We have worked with Indigenous activists in this region in the past as part of our work to resist the Jordan Cove LNG fossil fuel pipeline from being built through southern Oregon.
The McDermitt Caldera is one of the last, best sagebrush strongholds remaining for wildlife in Oregon’s high desert. The public lands in and around the project area comprise an ecologically critical landscape teeming with specially protected species, public land designations, and proposed protections. Southeastern Oregon contains some of the largest continuous blocks of habitat in the Great Basin and is therefore a vital wildlife corridor between other remaining intact natural areas.
McDermitt Caldera includes protected wildlands, irreplaceable sagebrush habitat for greater sage-grouse and other imperiled species, and streams crucial to the survival and recovery of threatened Lahontan cutthroat trout. Mining exploration poses many significant effects on the environment such as road construction and bore drilling which requires tens of thousands of gallons of water in a desert ecosystem. Other impacted species may include pronghorn antelope, pygmy rabbit, and mule deer.
The Oregon Chapter of the Sierra Club is strongly opposed to the creation of sacrifice zones, a term used to refer to areas targeted by polluting or dangerous projects that end up sacrificing the health and way of life for people and animals who call that area home. This lithium exploration project is a serious environmental justice concern for the surrounding communities because it paves the way for rampant lithium extraction at the expense of the ecosystem and culturally important sites. Lithium mining contributes to air pollution through the release of fumes and other emissions, which is known to cause respiratory illness. The mining process can produce chemicals such as sulfuric acid and sodium hydroxide that, if not properly managed, can leach into the surrounding environment and contaminate nearby water sources.
If you are interested in getting involved, making your voice heard, and helping to protect our public lands from corporate profit and industrial pollution, please get in touch! Alice Weston, our Conservation Organizer for Central & Eastern Oregon can help you plug into this campaign. You can get in touch with Alice at alice.weston@sierraclub.org.