Nevada’s Rhyolite Ridge lithium-boron mine can move forward after a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit aimed at stopping the project over impacts to an endangered wildflower.
U.S. District Judge Cristina Silva, ruling in Nevada on Friday, sided with the federal government and rejected the conservation groups’ request to block the Rhyolite Ridge Lithium/Boron Mine Project in Esmeralda County. The lawsuit had argued that the project would harm Tiehm’s buckwheat, a rare plant whose entire population grows on land within the mining area.
Silva’s decision concluded that federal regulators properly approved the mine and sufficiently examined how it would affect the endangered species. In her ruling, Silva said the mitigation measures included fencing around the habitat and buffer zones between mining activities and the buckwheat. Silva also wrote that of 1.4 square miles (3.63 square kilometers) of critical habitat for Tiehm’s buckwheat, the project would reduce it by 4.9%.
Ioneer, the Australia-based company behind the project, described the ruling as a significant step for the project and for domestic mineral production. Bernard Rowe, Ioneer’s managing director, said the land holds the largest lithium and boron deposit in the world outside Turkey, and he said Rhyolite Ridge would be Nevada’s third lithium mine.
Ioneer also said the mine would support U.S. jobs and processing capacity. The company’s vice president for corporate development and external affairs, Chad Yeftich, said in a statement that Rhyolite Ridge would create hundreds of new American jobs, reduce reliance on foreign materials and processing, and provide a domestic source of two critical minerals.
According to the company, it expects construction to begin by the end of this year and production in 2029 while it continues to seek a financial partner after a major investor pulled out last year. Sibanye Stillwater previously said the project did not make financial sense, and in January 2025 the Department of Energy finalized a nearly $1 billion loan for the project.
Rowe said the mine would span about 11 square miles (28.49 square kilometers), with a lifespan of more than 77 years. He said the project would produce enough lithium carbonate for around 400,000 electric vehicles per year, and it would also produce boric acid, which is used in pest control, flame retardant, and medical and personal care.
The case took on a broader policy backdrop as the project moved through federal oversight under different administrations. The mine was first approved under the Biden administration as part of a clean energy agenda, and the Trump administration has also supported lithium projects in Nevada as a way to bolster U.S. manufacturing of critical minerals. The Interior Department declined to comment.
Conservation groups said the decision does not end the fight. The Center for Biological Diversity, which it said successfully pushed for Tiehm’s buckwheat endangered species designation in 2022, said it is not finished. Great Basin Director Patrick Donnelly said the organization is considering an appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Donnelly argued that the project would increase the risk that Tiehm’s buckwheat goes extinct and said the legal reasoning could matter for how the Endangered Species Act affects other species and protected habitats. He said the buckwheat is a wildflower only a couple inches tall and that it grows in an area about the size of seven football fields in the Silver Peak Range, where in spring it produces green leaves and yellow pom-pom-like flowers that support pollinators.
In Donnelly’s view, the mitigation fencing may not prevent harm. He said there has been “death by a thousand cuts” for Tiehm’s buckwheat and called the project’s approval a “death blow” for the wildflower if it proceeds.