‘It's not a smash-and-grab': Tiny town of Dyer, Nevada, debates lithium mine's impact

Yahoo

3 days ago

DYER, Nevada (KLAS) — It's the biggest town in Nevada's poorest, least-populated county. But things could start to change soon in the farming community of Dyer in Fish Lake Valley.
Australian mining company Ioneer is nearing construction on its Rhyolite Ridge lithium project, expected to bring 500 construction jobs and 300-350 permanent jobs later when operations begin, estimated in 2028.
An agreement between Esmeralda County and Ioneer will jump-start that process, with the company funding positions for three sheriff's deputies, six emergency services staffers and a grant writer. It will pay for a new fire truck, an ambulance and other vehicles. It also provides for a $900,000 emergency services building, as well as equipment for the emergency crew. In total, it will bring $5-$7 million in benefits before the mine goes into operation.
'We're not talking about state tax abatement,' Mark Hartman told 8 News Now in an interview in early May. He has lived in the valley since 1972 and now he's growing wine grapes .
'We're talking about real improvements for the poorest county in Nevada. There are 700 people that live here. You know, 300-plus live in Fish Lake Valley. The county seat has less. Silver Peak has even fewer,' Hartman said.
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A study commissioned by Ioneer estimates when the mine is producing, it will generate around $8.5 million a year in taxes for the county, more than doubling the current county budget that's around $6 million. During a tour for 8 News Now last month, Ioneer's managing director, Bernard Rowe, said the mine could operate for 100 years depending on how it's operated. In the past week, updated financials from Ioneer show that's possible, and the lithium-boron deposit is richer than previously revealed.
Residents know Ioneer officials because the company has been holding community meetings for six or seven years, Rowe said.
'Over time, he has been here. He has been listening to us,' Hartman said about Rowe.
'It's not a smash-and-grab,' Hartman said.
'What he's found is a multigenerational deposit. So this is two, three times … this becomes Michigan building cars back in the day, you know, when Ford first talked about the assembly line,' Hartman said.
Some residents are more skeptical. They're not happy about anything that adds traffic on the roads. Others fear that Ioneer will sell out to a partner. And water is on everybody's minds.
Matt Johnson, a Fish Lake Valley farmer who runs Johnson's Feed and Farm Supply with his wife, grows alfalfa and orchard grass, and he runs some cattle on his property.
'It feels like salesmanship,' he said.
'We're already in a designated basin where we have a declining water table every year,' Johnson said. He said there are concerns that taking water for the mine could be detrimental to groundwater levels. Johnson serves as vice-chairman of the Esmeralda Conservation District, an agency that deals with wells and water management.
Ioneer came into the picture long after groundwater dropped in the valley, but Rowe understands the concern. When the U.S. Bureau of Land Management asked Ioneer if it would consider doing a groundwater study as part of the approval process for the mine, the company agreed. Rowe called it a massive undertaking.
The study found the water table has dropped several hundred feet over the past 50 to 60 years, Rowe said. The analysis found that the southern end of the valley is actually a separate water table, and that water moves from the south to the north.
He said the study showed the water table at the northern end of the valley had only dropped 5 feet at a site where one measurement was taken, the turnoff to the mine site just north of Dyer.
'We could pump any amount of water at Rhyolite Ridge, and it wouldn't affect the valley,' Rowe said.
Ioneer isn't taking any risks, and has purchased water rights in the valley that it will leverage against water use at the mine.
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A 'pivot' is a well that is at the center of an irrigated circle that you might see in aerial views of rural Nevada farms. Ioneer has produced the water rights for six existing pivots in Fish Lake Valley. Agriculture is continuing at those sites until Ioneer determines it needs additional water, an Ioneer spokesperson said.
'Instead of irrigating six pivots down here, we will take that water, we will turn off those six pivots, and we'll take that water and use it up at the mine,' Rowe said. That would be a gradual process — not just an abrupt shutoff that could cause dust problems, he said.
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Johnson acknowledged that Ioneer had every right to pump groundwater after purchasing water rights. 'It has a legal path forward,' he said.
'We had very lengthy discussions about water,' Ralph Keys, a former Esmeralda County commissioner, said. 'The county will always have the right to protest any change in water use in the basin and the county as a whole.' He noted that the water rights in the basin are fully allocated.
'The basin is closed and there are no additional water rights available,' he said.
Keys helped craft the Ioneer-Esmeralda County agreement before he left the commission after three terms in 2024.
'The county depends on the agricultural industry for a large consistent tax base. Farming has been a stable industry in Esmeralda County for over 100 years. I cannot say that about mining,' Keys said. He's from a family that has been farming in Fish Lake Valley since the early 1970s.
'Hopefully, the Ioneer project will be around for 50-plus years. The boom-and-bust cycle of mining in Nevada is evident. Look at all of the old ghost towns around Nevada,' Keys said.
Goldfield, the biggest city in Nevada from 1903 to 1910 (pop. 20,000) during a gold mining boom, is evidence of his concern. The Esmeralda County seat is now home to about 200 people.
'As a commissioner when Ioneer came to town I saw the need to stress the fact that we did not have the necessary EMS to support such a large mining operation,' he said. 'Public safety became the number one concern of mine.'
In Dyer, the nearest hospital is 90 miles away in Bishop, California. Keys put a priority on parts of the agreement that dealt with safety.
Keys and Ioneer's Chad Yeftich, vice president for corporate development and external affairs, both emphasized the importance of benefits included in the gap between now and when the mine becomes profitable.
Without the agreement, Esmeralda County doesn't have the resources to provide emergency services and additional law enforcement needed as the population grows and activity picks up. Training will be needed before shipments of lithium and boric acid go on area roads.
Ioneer is also footing the bill for improvements to the county road that leads to Rhyolite Ridge.
Another element of the agreement surrounds the possibility that the county could find grants to help cover the costs of additional expenses related to growth and the costs associated with the mine. Ioneer is funding the cost of a grant writer. If grant money is secured, half the money would go directly to the county for needs associated with drilling deeper wells or rehabilitation of wells.
Johnson said he's concerned that the agreement is completely voluntary and includes language that Ioneer can use to get out from under it. He has lived in the valley on-and-off since 1976, and views the situation as favoritism.
'I'm not 'anti-the-project' enough to go to all their meetings,' Johnson said.
Concerns about water go beyond farming.
In May, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed protections for the Fish Lake Valley tui chub, a small fish that lives in a spring on a private ranch in the northern end of the valley. If the tui chub is protected under the Endangered Species Act, it could complicate an already complex water picture.
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