Public input sought for proposed lithium exploration
By Mindy Gould on Monday, July 31st, 2023 in Eastern/Southeast Oregon News Eastern/Southeast Oregon Top Stories
Vale-The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is seeking public input for the next 30 days on a proposal to conduct expanded lithium exploration in the McDermitt Caldera.
HiTech Minerals, Inc. has submitted a proposed plan of operations to conduct the McDermitt Exploration Project. The project is in southeast Oregon approximately 20 miles west of McDermitt, NV, on BLM-administered lands in Malheur County. Comments received during this 30-day public scoping period may be used to develop an environmental assessment that will evaluate the potential environmental consequences of the proposed plan.
“The scoping period is an opportunity to help the BLM identify the issues, impacts, and potential alternatives to consider as a part of its National Environmental Policy Act analysis of the proposed plan,” Malheur Field Manager Jonah Blustain said. “Substantive comments will better inform our analysis which informs the decision.”
The proposed plan currently encompasses a 7,200-acre project area and would authorize almost 100 acres of disturbances from 267 exploration drill sites, the construction of 30.2 miles of new access routes, and other temporary disturbances to store the necessary equipment for the exploration activities. Subsurface hydrological, geophysical, and geochemical data may be collected during the proposed drilling activities as well. Exploration drilling would occur annually between July 1 to November 30 for up to 5 years and concurrent reclamation of the disturbances would occur after each drill season.
The public will have another opportunity to review and provide comments on the environmental assessment prior to the proposed plan’s approval. If the proposed plan of operations for exploration is approved, the previously authorized Notice Level of Operations would be closed, and the associated reclamation obligations and financial guarantee requirements currently in place would be transferred to the approved plan.
Scoping comments can be submitted to BLM_OR_VL_LithiumHiTech@blm.gov or: Attn: McDermitt Exploration Project, c/o BLM Malheur Field Office, 100 Oregon St., Vale, OR 97918.
To view the project documents or submit comments through the project ePlanning site go to https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/2025844/510
For additional project information, please contact Larisa Bogardus at 541-523-1407 or lbogardus@blm.gov.
