Amnesty International on Tuesday released a research briefing asserting that the US government is violating international human rights law by approving lithium mining projects across Nevada without securing the approval of impacted Indigenous peoples.

The research briefing focuses on three Nevada lithium mining projects: The Thacker Pass Lithium Mine, the Nevada North Lithium Project, and the Rhyolite Ridge Lithium Project. These projects sit on land that Nevada tribes regard as ancestral territory.

The rights group’s report calls attention to the principle of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC), an international human rights standard that requires governments and corporations to obtain Indigenous peoples’ agreement before approving projects that affect their lands. Under the National Historic Preservation Act, US law mandates that agencies must engage with tribes, but are not required to secure their approval, whereas FPIC effectively provides a right of veto. The FPIC standard is defined in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which the US has previously endorsed but has never made binding through domestic legislation.

Beyond the international FPIC debate, there are also compelling domestic legal arguments. The federal Indian trust responsibility is a legally enforceable fiduciary obligation on the part of the US government to protect tribal lands and resources. This provides an additional avenue for legal challenges to be raised against the mining operations. 

Lithium is a key ingredient in rechargeable batteries used to power electric vehicles and, increasingly, AI data centers. Nevada has robust lithium deposits, which are extremely valuable to the US government’s energy ambitions. However, lithium mining comes with significant environmental costs. Lithium mining is a water-intensive process, and the EPA has warned of potential uncontrolled groundwater contamination at Thacker Pass. At Rhyolite Ridge, conservationists warn the project could destroy as much as 90 percent of the global population of Tiehm’s buckwheat, a small wildflower that grows nowhere else on earth.

Tuesday’s report follows previous condemnations made by Human Rights Watch and comes amidst an evolving, contentious landscape surrounding lithium mining operations. In 2024, China began enacting plans to curb unchecked expansion within the lithium sector. In 2023, Argentina saw large protests against a constitutional reform allowing greater lithium extraction on indigenous land.