Green agendas clash in Nevada as company grows rare plant to help it survive effects of a mine

  • 📰 AP
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 33 sec. here
  • 20 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 79%
  • Publisher: 51%

Electric Vehicles News

Plants,Nevada,General News

A grand experiment is underway in Nevada where an endangered desert wildflower stands in the way of a mining company's plans to dig for lithium to help speed production of batteries for electric cars and other green energy projects. Australia-based Ioneer says the mine it wants to dig in the Nevada desert would more than quadruple U.S.

Botanist Florencia Peredo Ovalle works in her greenhouse in Gardnerville, Nevada, Tuesday, May 21, 2024. Ovalle, who works for mining company Ioneer, cares for specimens of Tiehm’s buckwheat as part of an experiment aimed at helping to keep the extremely rare desert plant from going extinct while still allowing the company to dig for lithium on land where it grows.

Conservationists contend that mining would eradicate the plant from its current habitat and that the efforts to transplant the greenhouse-grown specimens to reclaimed mined areas are unproven. There are nearly 25,000 of the plants in the wild on federal land near the mine site along the Nevada border with California. They were discovered only in the mid-1980s and resemble a scrawny dandelion during the few weeks of the year when they bloom.

Unlike most mining operations, Ioneer plans to backfill sections of ground and restore habitat as the mining moves laterally along what it says is an unusually horizontal seam of lithium.

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.
We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 728. in BUSİNESS

Business Business Latest News, Business Business Headlines