Nevada lithium mine will crush rare plant habitat US said is critical to its survival, lawsuit says

FILE - In this photo provided by the Center for Biological Diversity, Tiehm's buckwheat grows in the high desert in the Silver Peak Range of western Nevada about halfway between Reno and Las Vegas, June 1, 2019. A rendering of a processing facility planned at Ioneer Ltd's lithium mine is displayed by the US Bureau of Land Management during a news conference in Reno, Nev., Oct. 24, 2024, announcing the bureau's approval of a permit for the project.

Conservationists and a Native American tribe are suing the U.S. to try to block a Nevada lithium mine they say will drive an endangered desert wildflower to extinction, disrupt groundwater flows and threaten cultural resources.