The stock price of British Columbia-based Lithium Americas Corp. skyrocketed after the U.S. Bureau of Land Management granted final approval for its Lithium Nevada project in Nevada, also known as Thacker Pass, but critics of the project warn they could exhaust all legal options available before letting the green light stand.

The government agency released a final record of decision for the project on Jan. 15 as part of a larger push by the Trump administration to complete certain mine reviews before the inauguration of President Joe Biden. Thacker Pass was valued at $2.59 billion after taxes in 2018 as a 46-year open pit operation, with first production anticipated in 2022. China-based Ganfeng Lithium Co. Ltd., one of the world's largest lithium producers, holds a 14.2% interest in Lithium Americas.

Lithium Americas equities rocketed on news of the approval. Its daily share price closed Jan. 19 at $26.74, jumping 533.7% year over year, and it outlined plans for an underwritten public offering. The following day, the company priced the offering at $350 million, comprising 15,909,091 common shares at $22 apiece.

"With the federal permitting process complete, our focus in on advancing the financing process including discussions with potential strategic partners," Lithium Americas CEO Jon Evans said in a Jan. 15 statement.

However, the move by the Trump administration to push approval of the Thacker Pass mine through before a change in power in the U.S. aggrieved some of the staunchest critics of the project. Kelly Fuller, energy and mining campaign director for the Western Watersheds Project, told S&P Global Market Intelligence that locals concerned about the environmental impacts of the proposed mine are reviewing all options to stop the development, including litigation.

While the record of decision appeared to have eliminated the ability for a Biden administration to backtrack the mine approval, citizens may be able to appeal the issuance of the record of decision, Fuller said.

"This project was fast-tracked and rubber-stamped. It has not received the environmental review it needs. And what environmental review it got has not been taken seriously by the BLM," Fuller said. "It is no accident they rushed this approval out right before the change in administrations."

Lithium Americas itself has conceded the risk of delays related to litigation against Thacker Pass in federal filings to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. "It is possible that a legal protest could be triggered through one of these [environmental] requirements or processes that could delay development activities," the company stated in an April 2019 filing.

Fuller said one of the entities not taken seriously by the BLM was the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which issued concerns to the land agency in September 2020 about the potential for the mine creating adverse groundwater impacts lasting for at least 300 years. The EPA also expressed concerns regarding the "adequacy of funding for long-term post-closure management issues," asserting it was "unclear what funding mechanism would be utilized to mitigate and monitor for groundwater impacts."

"We have remaining concerns about the project's potential impacts to water quality, the sufficiency of proposed monitoring and mitigation plans, potential impacts to air quality, and long-term post-closure financial assurance," the EPA stated in the September 2020 letter.

The BLM approval reportedly attracted activists to set up an encampment at the Thacker Pass project site to begin 24-hour protests. Fuller said that movement is expected to grow as local ranchers concerned about groundwater contamination join the movement.

"The opposition is a living thing," Fuller said. "It is not dead because of the approval."