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Silver Peak mine

A Nevada Lithium Mine Nears Approval, Despite Threatening the Only Habitat of an Endangered Wildflower

Elements in the soil of the Silver Peak range nurture a buckwheat that grows nowhere else in the world, but could also radically increase U.S. production of a mineral critical to the energy transition.

By Wyatt Myskow

Tiehm’s buckwheat, a small wildflower with yellow pom-poms, is an endemic species unique to the Silver Peak Range. Credit: Patrick Donnelly/Center for Biological Diversity
The Silver Peak mine in Clayton Valley, Nev. is the only active lithium mine in the U.S. Credit: Marli Miller/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Lithium Companies Fight Over Water in the Arid Great Basin

By Daniel Rothberg

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