Piedmont Lithium receives approval from the state to move forward with mine

Piedmont Lithium has received approval from the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Energy, Mineral and Land Resources to mine in Northwestern Gaston County.

In 2021, Piedmont Lithium expressed interest in developing a lithium mine near Cherryville.

The company applied for a permit from the NCDEQ’s Division of Energy, Mineral and Land Resources to mine in the area and began seeking local support from the Gaston County Board of Commissioners.

At a meeting last August, Piedmont Lithium staff faced a hostile crowd and several questions from the Gaston County Board of Commissioners that they could not answer.

The company expressed in a recent press release that the area is desirable due to the underground Tin-Spodumene Belt that runs through part of Gaston County.

“Carolina Lithium is a highly strategic project,” CEO Keith Phillips said in the release. “Located within both the renowned Carolina Tin-Spodumene Belt and the U.S. Battery Belt, the Project is being designed as a fully integrated mining, spodumene concentrate, and lithium hydroxide manufacturing operation. There are currently no such integrated sites operating anywhere in the world, and the economic and environmental advantages of this strategy are compelling.”

At the 2023 meeting, Piedmont Lithium staff stated that the mine would initially create hundreds of jobs in Gaston County and generate $45 million in fiscal revenue in the county within the first five years, according to past reports by The Gazette.

Local homeowners and county commissioners alike expressed concern over impacts to water quality, the possibility of the mine leading residential wells in the area to dry up, and more.

In order to move forward with the development, Piedmont Lithium will need an approved rezoning request from the Gaston County Board of Commissioners followed by an approved special use permit, according to Gaston County spokesman Adam Gaub.

Gaub said the county has not yet received an application from Piedmont Lithium, but once the application is received the weeks-long process will include public hearings.

Chad Brown, Chairman of the Board of Commissioners said budget proceedings will take precedence over rezoning requests, so Piedmont Lithium is not likely to be on the agenda any earlier than July.

In addition to permits, Piedmont Lithium will need landowners within the planned development site to agree to sell their property to the company.

According to company spokesperson Erin Sanders, Piedmont Lithium is organizing the best financing strategy and waiting for a few other elements to come together before filing the rezoning request.

The company hopes that gaining approval from the state will change the way residents view the project.

"We certainly hope that the state mining permit approval provides the community and the board of commissioners with a new level of confidence in our ability to responsibly develop this project," Sanders said. "The technical experts at the state Division of Energy, Mineral, and Land Resources have deemed that our project plans meet their strict requirements, and that involves our plans for water, air, dust, and traffic, and all of those things that have been raised as concerns by the community, so we hope this gives them that new level of confidence that technical experts have looked at them and deemed our plans appropriate."

Brown said the Board of Commissioners still has a lot of questions for the company.

"The board is still concerned and will have questions over the environmental concerns. They still have to obtain an air quality and a water quality certificate from the state, so those are things that they'll be getting," Brown said. "Those are things that we look into, because as you well know, we're responsible for a large portion, which would be 4 million people in the region which are on Mountain Island water, and then we have a significant value for what creeks and streams are doing as well, then you have the biggest issue out there, which would be water and electricity."

Brown added that there is concern over whether the power grid could sustain the amount of energy that will be needed to operate the mine and still allow for future industrial development in that area.

"The Gaston County Commission only has one time to get this right, so all the questions we ask, all the concerns, everything will have to be met. The reason being, the company can get it wrong, and they can fix it. The commissioners can't get it wrong...That's why there's a lot of questions being asked. It will take the due diligence of staff and Piedmont Lithium working with us, so we're working on trying to get everybody on the same page of doing those things, which is where we're at now."

This article originally appeared on The Gaston Gazette: Piedmont Lithium receives approval from the state