Federal officials have extended what was initially a days-long public comment period for a lithium exploration project in southeastern Oregon.

Australia-based Jindalee Resources’ proposal includes drilling at more than 260 sites across 7,200 acres of sagebrush desert in Malheur County, near the Oregon-Nevada border, in search of lithium. The highly valued metal is a key ingredient in batteries, including those that store renewable energy and power electric vehicles.

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. Nevada already has paved the way for what’s expected to be the largest lithium mine in North America. Jindalee’s proposal is the first step to building one on the Oregon side of the caldera.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has been reviewing Jindalee’s proposal to explore federal land for lithium since 2022. The agency published its resulting environmental assessment last week, and gave the public just five days to review and comment on hundreds of pages of analyses and data.

That’s an unusually short public comment period, particularly for a project that’s likely to affect vulnerable species like sage grouse, and ranchers who rely on public lands for grazing cattle.

“We are 6th generation ranchers in the Caldera where the cattle, fish, and sage-grouse have coexisted over time, and yet we get 5 days time to comment on the biggest impact of our lifetime and generations to come,“ April Wilkinson, co-owner of GJ Livestock, said in a statement shared by environmental groups. “Our voices will be heard even in a short period of time. We hope that the people are heard and the Caldera is saved.”

BLM received more than 1,500 comments in those five days. This week, the agency quietly extended the deadline for public comments to April 25, without a public announcement.

“After carefully considering public input, we felt it was beneficial for the BLM, public, and project to extend the comment period for 25 additional days,” a BLM spokesperson said in an email to OPB.

BLM notified the public of Jindalee’s proposal in 2023, and accepted public comments for over two months during that early stage. Last week was the first time Oregonians could see the agency’s environmental assessment, which more thoroughly outlines how this project might affect species such as sage grouse and trout, as well as lands used for grazing.

This project comes as the Trump administration pushes federal agencies to fast-track resource extraction such as mining, drilling and logging. Trump has said he wants the United States to produce more natural resources for energy, including rare earth minerals, even as his administration has criticized pushes toward electric vehicles.

There’s also pressure on the battery storage sector to seek domestic sources of lithium as new tariffs, including some advanced by the Biden administration, push up the price of imported materials.

The region where Jindalee proposes to build roads and drilling sites is critical breeding ground to sage grouse, a vulnerable bird species whose populations have plummeted in recent decades due to livestock grazing, agriculture and mining. Sage grouse once roamed 13 states, but now only occupy about half of their historic range, mostly on public land owned by BLM.

To avoid encroaching on the sage grouse breeding season, Jindalee’s proposal says it won’t operate in the area from December through June.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2025/04/01/lithium-project-in-southeastern-oregon-gets-public-input-extension/