Tonopah Flats Lithium Project is the Latest Critical Minerals Mining Project to Gain FAST-41 Coverage

WASHINGTON (August 19, 2025) – The Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council (Permitting Council) is pleased to announce the FAST-41 coverage of the Tonopah Flats Lithium Project. If permitted, this project is anticipated to produce 30,000 MT(metric tons)/yr of lithium, a mineral critical for battery production and medicinal purposes. 

“The Permitting Council is excited to welcome the Tonopah Flats Lithium Project to FAST-41 coverage,” said Emily Domenech, Permitting Council Executive Director. “By streamlining the federal permitting process for this project, we will continue to build on President Trump's Executive Order to expand accessibility to our country's vast natural resources, creating a stronger domestic supply chain of critical minerals and reducing our reliance on China."

Located west of Tonopah, Nevada in Esmeralda and Nye Counties, this lithium project involves exploration drilling, surface mining, and construction and operation of a processing facility for the production of approximately 30,000 MT/yr of critical mineral lithium hydroxide monohydrate (LiOH). This project initially came under Permitting Council purview on June 27, 2025 as a transparency project, before project sponsor American Battery Technology Company elected to apply for FAST-41 coverage. The project is now covered under FAST-41, giving it the full benefits of the program, including the development of a coordinated project plan and dedicated project management by Permitting Council staff.

The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management serves as the lead agency for this project. Learn more about the Tonopah Flats Lithium Project on the Federal Permitting Dashboard. Learn more about the Permitting Council at permitting.gov. 

About the Permitting Council and FAST-41

Established in 2015 by Title 41 of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST-41), the Permitting Council is a federal agency charged with improving the transparency and predictability of the federal environmental review and authorization process for certain critical infrastructure projects. The Permitting Council is comprised of the Permitting Council Executive Director, who serves as the Council Chair; 13 federal agency Council members (including deputy secretary-level designees of the Secretaries of Agriculture, Army, Commerce, Interior, Energy, Transportation, Defense, Homeland Security, and Housing and Urban Development, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Chairs of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation); and the Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget.

The Permitting Council coordinates federal environmental reviews and authorizations for projects that seek and qualify for FAST-41 coverage. FAST-41 covered projects are entitled to comprehensive permitting timetables and transparent, collaborative management of those timetables on the Federal Permitting Dashboard. FAST-41 covered projects may be in the energy production, electricity transmission, energy storage, surface transportation, aviation, ports and waterways, water resource, broadband, pipelines, manufacturing, mining, carbon capture, semiconductors, artificial intelligence and machine learning, high-performance computing and advanced computer hardware and software, quantum information science and technology, data storage and data management, and cybersecurity sectors.

The Permitting Council also serves as a federal center for permitting excellence, supporting federal efforts to improve infrastructure permitting including and beyond FAST-41 covered projects to the extent authorized by law, including activities that promote or provide for the efficient, timely, and predictable completion of environmental reviews and authorizations for federally-authorized infrastructure projects.

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