Indigenous Land Rights and Lithium in Nevada: Thacker Pass, the Court Rulings and Amnesty's 2026 Report

The clash between Indigenous land rights and lithium mining in Nevada now has names, dates and court records behind it. In May 2026 Amnesty International published a report on three Nevada lithium projects: Thacker Pass, Nevada North and Rhyolite Ridge. It concluded that the free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) of affected Indigenous Peoples had not been obtained for any of them (Amnesty International, May 2026). Below: the report, the court rulings and project status, as part of our United States coverage.

Why Nevada matters for US lithium

Amnesty says Nevada holds about 85% of known US lithium reserves. It adds that more than 23,500 active lithium claims were registered across the state as of September 2024 (Amnesty). According to the report, an estimated 79% of known US lithium reserves lie within 35 miles of Tribal reservations.

The US Geological Survey says commercial-scale US lithium output in 2025 came from a single continental brine operation in Nevada, and it withholds the volume to protect company data (USGS, Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026). USGS puts US net import reliance above 50% in 2025. It also says the average US contract price for battery-grade lithium carbonate was $9,000 per tonne in 2025, down 31% from 2024.

Thacker Pass and Peehee Mu'huh

Thacker Pass is an 18,000-acre project in the McDermitt Caldera in Humboldt County (Amnesty). It is developed by a US subsidiary of Lithium Americas Corp. General Motors owns a 38% asset-level stake (Lithium Americas Q2 2026 10-Q). Phase 1 is designed to produce 40,000 tonnes a year of battery-grade lithium carbonate (Lithium Americas 2025 10-K). In 2025, as part of a renegotiation of the company's US$2.26 billion Energy Department loan, the US government took a 5% stake in Lithium Americas and a 5% stake in the project (Amnesty).

Several Tribes, including the Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribe, claim the area as ancestral land. Amnesty says the project's environmental impact statement failed to acknowledge or analyse Peehee Mu'huh ("Rotten Moon") as the site of an 1865 massacre or as a culturally significant landscape. The report describes the massacre as a September 1865 raid by the First Nevada Cavalry on a Northern Paiute and Western Shoshone village (Amnesty).

Amnesty cites a 2025 Human Rights Watch and ACLU investigation that found federal permitting ran from January 21, 2020 to January 15, 2021. That is under one year, against a 3.1-year agency average for new mines. The investigation also found that the Bureau of Land Management's engagement with Tribes was limited to three rounds of letters. The Fort McDermitt Tribe's council signed a community benefits agreement with Lithium Americas in 2022, and the agreement was updated in December 2025. Later council members told Amnesty it was highly one-sided (Amnesty).

What the courts decided

• January 2021: the BLM issued the Record of Decision approving the mine (10-K).
• District court (appealed in 2023): the federal court in Nevada granted partial summary judgment largely for the BLM and Lithium Nevada, sending one issue back to the agency without cancelling the approval (remand without vacatur). Construction began in February 2023 (Ninth Circuit memorandum; 10-K).
• July 17, 2023: the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that ruling in an appeal that included the Burns Paiute Tribe (Ninth Circuit).
• February 2023 to December 2023: in February 2023 the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony, Burns Paiute Tribe and Summit Lake Paiute Tribe filed a separate suit over consultation. A request for a restraining order was denied in March 2023. All claims were dismissed on November 11, 2023, and the final judgment in December 2023 was not appealed (10-K).

Lithium Americas told Amnesty that the site is "not in a federally recognized Native American territory." It also said that "federal courts have repeatedly upheld BLM's consultation as consistent with federal law" (Amnesty). Amnesty says ancestral rights under international law apply regardless of land classification.

Fermina Stevens and the Elko projects

Fermina Stevens is a member of the Te-Moak Tribe of Western Shoshone and executive director of the Western Shoshone Defense Project. In a May 12, 2026 interview with Amnesty, she said two proposed lithium mines lie less than 100 miles from Elko. She raised concerns about pinyon trees, a traditional pine-nut source, and water use in a drought-prone state. She also cited the 1863 Ruby Valley Treaty, which she says recognises Western Shoshone territory (Amnesty, May 12, 2026). "We're trying to protect the land and its resources for future generations," she said.

The Elko County project in Amnesty's report is Nevada North, which is being developed by Surge Battery Metals. In March 2025 the BLM approved exploration disturbing up to 250 acres, and Evolution Mining joined as a joint-venture partner in December 2025. Amnesty lists the Te-Moak Tribe among the Tribes with ancestral rights there. At Ioneer's Rhyolite Ridge, which has a US$996 million Energy Department loan approved in 2025, a district court rejected challengers' claims in late March 2026, and they appealed in April 2026 (Amnesty).

What it means for investors

At Thacker Pass, the litigation has so far favoured the developer. As of June 30, 2026, Lithium Americas had capitalised $1.8 billion and was targeting mechanical completion in late 2027, with ramp-up during 2028 (10-Q). Still, opposition, pending appeals elsewhere and changing federal permitting rules can affect timelines and costs. When comparing Nevada lithium developers on our companies pages, read legal-proceedings disclosures alongside project milestones.

How we checked this: AI-drafted from the sources linked above and checked against them by our AI editor.