US judge won’t reconsider tribes’ bid to block Nevada mine

By SCOTT SONNER
Associated Press

RENO, Nev. (AP) — Two Native American tribes have failed again in their bid to persuade a federal judge in Nevada that a lithium mine planned near the Oregon line is on sacred lands where their ancestors were massacred in 1865. U.S. District Judge Miranda Du ruled this week that additional historical accounts the tribes submitted still fall short of evidence needed to temporarily block digging. She refused a request by the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony and the Oregon-based Burns Paiute Tribe to reconsider her earlier ruling denying their bid to block an archaeological survey. Nevada Lithium Corp.’s construction is scheduled to begin next year about 230 miles northeast of Reno.