Stop Toxic Gaston Pit Mine

Prevent Toxic Lithium Mining in Gaston County

Our group Prevent Toxic Lithium Mining in Gaston County, along with the local

group Stop Piedmont Lithium, has partnered with several top environmental law firms

in the county, along with hydrologists and scientists who have successfully fought to

protect the local environment in the past.

The Goal: To protect the local natural environment and the citizens of Gaston County,

including the disadvantaged population, while preventing an inexperienced speculative

mining company – specifically Piedmont Lithium – from opening any large-scale open

pit hard rock lithium mines in Gaston County, North Carolina.

The Reason: There are multiple methodologies for extracting lithium and newer

technologies are much safer and more environmentally sound than creating a proposed

1,500 acre 500’ deep open pit hard rock mine. The area around the Carolina Tin-

Spodumene Belt in NW Gaston County is too populated for an open pit mine.

Background: Piedmont Lithium is at best an exploratory mining company that has

never put a shovel in the ground or mined an ounce of Lithium. Never. They domiciled

to the US from Australia, where they could not raise money, only to have our US

Government give them $147M after being in the US less than 12 months. They have

bullied their way into our rural community, many whom have lived here for generations,

preying on the older farming citizens, first threatening with assurances that this is a

done deal and saying they have all the necessary permits to literally blow up our

community for the sake of a “Green United States.” They used various fear tactics,

including burning adjacent homes and leaving the debris, suggesting neighbors should

get out while they can, implying this mine has to happen in Gaston County for the

greater good, making offers on homes in the absence of the potential monetary value

of the minerals in the earth.

We have no interest in having this company in our community and we need your

financial help to preserve the history, agriculture, ecosystems, beauty, and health of

Gaston County residents.

Prevent Toxic Lithium Mining in Gaston County and Stop Piedmont Lithium have

always been for the environment and that is why we are against toxic lithium mining. In

the Carolina Tin-Spodumene Belt in NW Gaston County, where Piedmont Lithium’s

proposed mine would be, today we have clean water, clean air, clean streams,

abundant wildlife and healthy families – do not take that away from us!

The local Prevent Toxic Lithium Mining in Gaston County and Stop Piedmont

Lithium groups are opposed to the 500’ deep pit mine that Piedmont Lithium proposes

to open. Our community does not have municipal water – we each have our own

private, pure drinking wells, and we like it that way.

Mining will breach the water table, contaminating people's wells and/or making them go dry. The tailings (leftover materials) from these mines are often toxic and can leach into the groundwater, polluting it forever. Streams become polluted with soil erosion from these mines as well. The blasting will negatively affect the natural wildlife in the area, including amphibians, reptiles, mollusks and crustaceans as well as bald eagles and other migratory birds that are known to use this area. The proposed mine would destroy over 1,500 acres of habitat, clearing land and causing animals to leave the area. These mines decimate the air quality by creating massive amounts of dust released into the environment and on the neighbors.

Open pit mines like the ones Piedmont Lithium wants to build in our county sound

romantic on paper and seem great for helping America become more “green,” but they

in fact wreak havoc on the environment. Part of the mining plan includes blasting

multiple times a day within less than 1,000 feet from citizens’ homes. Many of our

families settled here nearly 100 years ago for the peace and quiet, along with the

richness of wildlife, water, and clean air. The mine proposed by Piedmont Lithium will

touch every aspect of our daily lives. It will interrupt the peace and quiet, introduce toxic dust into our lungs and our crops, the wildlife will run away or die, our wells will dry up thus our livestock will die – does not sound very green does it? Our 1971 North Carolina mining statute only requires a $1M performance bond – that won’t begin to cover the cleanup costs should an environmental disaster occur.

Opposition to Piedmont Lithium's proposed Gaston County mine is strong and growing, with thousands joining our movement on Change.org found at Change.org

Piedmont Lithium does NOT have a North Carolina mining permit, has not applied for proper local zoning, has infuriated local officials and has never been fully transparent to our impacted adjacent citizens about how they will protect our health and environment proactively, only offering they have a plan to fix it if they determine they cause a problem.

Piedmont Lithium has even compared the opening of this mine to the opening of a

Walmart! Stop Piedmont Lithium has a Facebook page Stop Piedmont Lithium to keep citizens informed of various issues in the mining industry, not only in Gaston County but globally. Lithium is toxic and hard rock mining is harmful to the environment and will destroy the rural and agricultural beauty of the area. There are newer technologies and truly green processes being developed here in the United States to safely source lithium that would exceed all of our US needs, including Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) and Sodium Ion batteries that do not destroy populous areas with open pit hard rock mining.

Please help us protect our environment and our citizens of northwest Gaston County

from becoming a sacrifice community or worse, an environmental disaster we leave for

our children. Your financial gift will be used to support ongoing legal, engineering, and

professional expert fees as well as operational expenses like mailers, media campaigns

and the future production of a documentary. Make a donation today to help save our

environment and our people.

A heartfelt Thank You from the impacted citizens of Gaston County.