A bill to exempt crystal deposits that could contain lithium from Maine’s strict mining law faces stiff opposition from environmental groups and state government.
State Sen. Joseph Martin, an Oxford County Republican, wants to make it easier to operate a pegmatite quarry of up to 20 acres.
During a public hearing Monday, he told members of the Environment and Natural Resources Committee the intent of the bill was to make it easier for noncommercial, recreational mining operations.
But Eliza Townsend, Maine conservation director with the Appalachian Mountain Club, said the bill would upend a carefully crafted law covering metallic mining.
"The current law wisely requires precautions to protect human and environmental health. Eliminating them would be irresponsible," Townsend told lawmakers.
A massive lithium deposit was discovered in western Maine in 2021. The material is in demand to make batteries for electric cars and renewable power.
But since lithium is considered a metal, the deposit owners are regulated under the state's tough mining laws. But after legislation to relax some standards, the DEP changed the rules to allow five-acre open pit mines, as long as the owners could prove there would be no toxic and acid pollution.
The hard work that was put into those changes would be undone by Martin's proposal to instead give such mines a simpler permitting process, said Rob Wood, the director of the department's bureau of land resources.
"A permit by rule process that classifies all pegmatite mining as a quarrying activity will not provide the same safeguards to ensure that extraction of lithium bearing minerals is conducted in a low-risk manner," he said.
According to the DEP, there are currently no applications submitted for metallic mining in the state.
