Photo from People of Red Mountain website. “People of Red Mountain – Paiute, Shoshone, and Bannock people from Fort McDermitt Tribe against Thacker Pass Lithium Mine, Nevada.”
On October 1, 2025, CBC News reported: “The U.S. government is taking a minority stake in Lithium Americas, a company that is developing one of the world’s largest lithium mines in northern Nevada. The Department of Energy will take a five per cent equity stake in the miner, which is based in Vancouver. It will also take a five per cent stake in the Thacker Pass lithium mining project, a joint venture with General Motors.”
Military applications of lithium
After this investment decision was announced the Nevada Independent reported on the national security element of this decision. Their article notes: “China has increasingly become a power player in the lithium market, controlling about 65 percent of lithium processing… With the world becoming increasingly electric, materials such as lithium are not only crucial for electric vehicles, but also military equipment [says Fred Steinmann at the University of Nevada, Reno].”
The U.S. Department of Defense (since rebranded the Department of War) has also previously awarded $11.8 million to Lithium Nevada Corporation, a subsidiary of Lithium Americas Corp., for the Thacker Pass mine.
Mine violates Indigenous rights
Earlier this year, in February 2025, Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) published this report that concluded the U.S. government’s decision to permit Lithium Americas to mine at Thacker Pass violated Indigenous people’s rights.
Human Rights Watch also noted that the construction work related to the mine has prevented Numu/Nuwu and Newe Indigenous peoples from accessing parts of Peehee Mu’huh, the Indigenous name for land in the area.
Just a few weeks later in March 2025, Grist reported Lithium Americas had received a $250 million investment to complete construction of the new mine. Their article notes: “The funding [came] from Orion Resources Partners LP, a global investment firm specializing in metals and materials…”
Bechtel involved
By April 2025, the Reston, Virginia-based company Bechtel celebrated the investment decision. Their statement notes: “Since receiving its original contract award in November of 2022, Bechtel has made significant progress as Lithium Americas’ engineering, procurement, and construction management contractor.”
Their statement adds: “Early works are complete, site grading and excavation is well underway, and long lead equipment has been ordered.”
Bechtel is also overseeing the construction of the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission (PRGT) pipeline on Gitxsan and Gitanyow territories in British Columbia.
FBI surveillance of land defenders
Then this past summer, ProPublica reported: “Law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, have for years worked alongside private mine security to surveil the largely peaceful protesters who oppose the mine.”
That article adds: “Officers and agents have tracked protesters’ social media, while the mining company has gathered video from a camera above a campsite protesters set up on public land near the mine. An FBI joint terrorism task force in Reno met in June 2022 ‘with a focus on Thacker Pass,’ the records also show, and Lithium Americas — the main company behind the mine — hired a former FBI agent specializing in counterterrorism to develop its security plan.”
Ka’ila Farrell-Smith, a member of the Klamath Tribes in Oregon who advises People of Red Mountain, says: “We’re out there doing ceremony and they’re surveilling us.” Chanda Callao, an organizer with People of Red Mountain, adds: “They treat us like we’re domestic terrorists.” And Gary McKinney, a member of the Duck Valley Shoshone-Paiute Tribe who is a spokesperson for People of Red Mountain, says: “We’re being watched, we’re being followed, we’re under the microscope.”
Man camps
Two weeks ago, on November 24, 2025, Yahoo Finance reported there are “around 700 workers now engaged in various phases of development”.
In September 2025, the Watershed Sentinel noted: “Rose Curtis, a member of the Fort McDermitt Shoshone Tribe, …works at Fort McDermitt Wellness Center… and is outspoken about the risks ‘man camps’ pose to the safety and wellbeing of women and children in the area. …The ACLU reports these concerns ‘are backed by documented instances of other extractive industry operations on or near Indigenous land that have been associated with increased violence against women [and] girls.’”
Timeline
Yahoo Finance has reported “as of Sept. 30, 2025, more than 80% of detailed engineering had been completed and the company aims to surpass 90% of design completion by the end of 2025.”
And in March 2025, Grist reported that the funding from Orion Resources Partners LP “will enable the first phase of construction to be completed by late 2027.”
As for future investment decisions on the mine, Grist also noted: “The investment firm is also considering giving an additional $500 million to support later phases of the mine’s development.”
Opposition
People of Red Mountain, also known as Atsa Koodakuh wyh Nuwu, is a Indigenous-led organization representing tribal communities of Paiute and Shoshone people. They oppose the mine at Peehee Mu’huh also known as Thacker Pass.
To find out more about People of Red Mountain, visit their website and Facebook and Instagram pages.
We continue to follow this.
Further reading: Brandi Morin: In Nevada, Indigenous land protectors face off with a Canadian mining company (Ricochet, September 14, 2023).
