Environmental group sues US Interior for approving rare earth mining in Mojave Desert

An environmental advocacy group is suing the Department of the Interior (DOI) over its decision to greenlight a rare earth mining project located within the Mojave National Preserve a year ago.

The lawsuit, filed last week by environmental law firm Earthjustice on behalf of the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), relates to the Department’s approval last year of the Colosseum mine project being developed by Australia’s Dateline Resources (ASX: DTR).

In its filing, Earthjustice said that the National Park Service (NPS) — a bureau under the DOI managing national reserves like the Mojave — signed off on the project without a “valid plan of operations or the necessary permits and approvals.”

In approving mining activities, the NPS had broken “numerous federal laws,” the lawsuit said, noting that the agency had for years denied Dateline’s efforts to advance the project.

Potential mine near Mountain Pass

The Colosseum project, which sits within Mojave’s Clark Mountain region, was previously mined for gold and silver during the 1990s, but it is now also being explored for rare earth elements. Dateline, which acquired the project in 2021, identified the project’s rare earth potential after a review of historic government data and drew geological similarities to MP Materials’ (NYSE: MP) Mountain Pass — the only rare earth mine in the US, located just 10 km away.

In response to US President Donald Trump’s executive order to bolster America’s critical minerals supply chain, the Interior Department approved Dateline’s mining rights last April. The project subsequently received public backing from Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who called the revival of the Colosseum project a “pivotal step” in the Trump administration’s efforts to build a secure supply of minerals such as rare earths.

While there is no current rare earth resource estimated for the project, Dateline had claimed there is potential for rare-earth-bearing ore within the project claim boundary.

Earlier this year, the Australian miner added a second project in California, where it highlighted its prospectivity for heavy rare earths.

‘Threat’ to Mojave Preserve

The attorney representing Earthjustice views the DOI’s approval of the project as “a blatant threat to the Mojave Preserve, setting a dangerous precedent that industrial mining interests can override decades of established park protections.”

“Laws and policies were put in place to protect national parks from destructive, speculative mining for a reason, and no administration is above the law when it ignores them,“ said Chance Wilcox, NPCA’s California Desert Program Manager.

Established by Congress in 1994, the Mojave is one of the largest national park sites in the lower 48 states. It provides habitat for bighorn sheep and is said to host the second-highest density of rare plants of any of the mountain ranges in California. Before the NPS, the Bureau of Land Management, also under the DOI, was the agency responsible for activity in the area and had approved mining in the 1980s.

In response to the legal proceedings against the DOI, Dateline said the activities at Colosseum will continue as planned, as the legal proceedings only target the aforementioned federal agencies.

Shares of Dateline Resources plunged over 9.5% at market close Friday on the legal uncertainty over its project, sending its market capitalization down to A$1.23 billion.