Disaster Peak, left, punctuates the northwest rim of the McDermitt Caldera in southeast Oregon in this Jan. 14, 2022, photo. The historic lakebed in the foreground contains some of the highest concentrations of lithium in the United States.
Bradley W. Parks / OPB
The Trump administration appears to be fast-tracking an Australian company’s lithium project in southeastern Oregon.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management on Wednesday published its environmental assessment of the McDermitt lithium exploration project, which has been in the works since 2022. It’s giving the public until March 31 to read the 103-page assessment and submit input.
The assessment says the project will begin “immediately upon federal and state authorization.”
BLM spokesperson Larisa Bogardus acknowledged in an email that the public comment period is shorter than typical, but added “there are no specific time frames regarding public involvement.”
A map of the McDermitt Caldera on the Oregon-Nevada border.
MacGregor Campbell / OPB
The agency’s assessment outlines the full scope of Jindalee Resources’ plans to search the area for lithium, a highly valuable metal used in batteries. Under its subsidiary, HiTech Minerals, Jindalee aims to bore up to 800 feet into the earth across 7,200 acres in Malheur County, near the Oregon-Nevada border.
The region’s famed McDermitt Caldera — formed by an ancient supervolcano — is thought to have some of the highest concentrations of lithium in the United States. A British Columbia-based company, Lithium Americas, operates a lithium mine on the Nevada side of the caldera. No mine has officially been proposed in Oregon, though Jindalee Resources’ exploration could be the first step toward building one.
The announcement comes as the Trump administration pushes for mining and drilling on public lands. Through executive orders and other directives, President Donald Trump has called on federal agencies like the Department of the Interior, which manages the BLM, to fast-track resource extraction projects like mining, drilling and logging.
This push for more U.S. resource extraction comes as new tariffs, including some advanced by the Biden administration, are pushing up the price of materials the country has largely imported from overseas.
The BLM announced in July 2023 that it would be conducting an environmental analysis of Jindalee’s proposal. It gave the public over a month to provide “share information, knowledge and concerns that can be considered in BLM’s analysis.” The agency hasn’t published new information on the project since then.
BLM spokesperson Bogardus said comments generated in 2023 were considered when developing the draft the agency released Wednesday.
Correction: The Bureau of Land Management is accepting public comments on Jindalee Resource’s lithium exploration project until Monday, March 31. A previous version of this story was off by one day.