Rural Gaston County, just south of Cherryville, NC is a century old farming community that is being disrupted by a proposed future hard rock strip mine along the Carolina Tin Spodumene Belt by Piedmont Lithium.  Located 35 miles NW of Charlotte, NC, the proposed mine site will displace hundreds of families that have been on this land for generations spanning 100+ years.  Whether residents are located adjacent to the mine or within miles of the proposed 500' deep pit(s), all will be impacted against their wishes by the strong vibrations of daily hard rock blasting and other mining operations.  There is the potential for toxic airborne dust created that will land on our properties and wash into our creeks after rainfall. 

Our family's health, our livestock, and our way of life will be impacted by the 24/7 mine noise, truck traffic, and the impact to our clear drinking wells. Imagine living next to a 24/7 construction site for the next 50 years.  Most residents have lived  here for decades to enjoy the peace and quiet of rural living, not to living next to an open pit mine.  

Nothing happens without a rezoning by our Gaston Co. Commissioners & a NC Mine permit.  Piedmont Lithium has only in July 2021 shared a high level often changing mining plan with few specific details to the Gaston Co Commissioners while continuing to invoke fear in the local landowners that this mine is inevitable.  They have been coaxed to sell their properties on the value of their old farmhouses and not on the value of the minerals beneath.  For four years, they have lived in uncertainty about what happens to their land, their homes, and their lives with many unaware of the process and approval hurdles that should provide time and an open forum to express their concerns should this project even be considered.   

We need the Gaston County Commissioners to hear your concern and opposition to this potential strip mine in their community.  They need to hear from those locally and nationally that understand the heavy impact of this type of open pit mining will have on Gaston County.  There are many other similar companies in the US who are developing new low impact technologies to extract and recycle lithium.  Such is the case with  Standard Lithium extracting lithium from readily available low cost geothermal brines in Arkansas and Lithium America & Albemarle with a technology to deliver lithium from clay in remote unpopulated parts of Nevada.  Lithium is found in the US and many other countries in greater quantities (Australia, Argentina & Chile) with whom the United States has great trade relationships - we don't have to hard rock mine for lithium in populated areas.   Hard rock mining is very intensive and very expensive - see recent Altura & Nemaska hard rock mining bankruptcies.  Let's be careful that we might be trying to solve one environmental issue at the risk of creating another environmental disaster during and long after the mine is closed.  

The landowner's health, right to plentiful clean drinking well water is in opposition to the proposed constant noise, vibration, traffic, light pollution and property values are on the line.  If we lose the battle and the mine moves forward, it is a decision that cannot be undone and has the potential to be a long-term negative liability on Gaston Co, its citizens, and the environment.  We want to be treated fairly, truthfully, and to be good neighbors.  We have a sincere concern that a mining operation in our community is not good for our longstanding citizens, does not create a significant number of meaningful well paying local jobs, is an environmental risk, and may ultimately turn away other industry from the area.  We are dealing with a new company that has only a portion of the needed funding for such an endeavor and has no experience in opening, operating, or successfully closing and restoring such a massive open pit mine operation.     

Please sign our petition to demonstrate your concern for the potential disruption to these hardworking citizens of Gaston County, their health, their way of life in a natural rural setting, and the environment.  Hard rock strip mining is not the way forward as technologies are quickly changing to other more abundant, cheaper, and better battery materials.  Let's not rush or be pushed into a bad outcome for Gaston County.