We would like to thank you for signing our petition and expressing your concern for the future of our county.  All the lithium needed in the United States can be sourced from other domestically secure and non destructive means (Direct Lithium Extraction - DLE from water) in much less populated areas than Gaston Co.  Hard rock mining today is environmentally dangerous, destructive to the earth, displaces a population of generational residents and wildlife, and is 180 degrees counter to the ultimate agenda and purpose of this new "Green Revolution" to reduce mankind's impact on the earth and its citizens.  Let's not create a new environmental problem in Gaston County by trying to solve another environmental problem.    

Companies like Albemarle, Livent, Standard Lithium, Neo Lithium, EnergyX, Lithium South and many many other experienced miners are developing better less impactful technologies to produce higher quality lower cost lithium from  existing reserves in the US and around the globe.  Experienced operators Albemarle & Livent have ceased hard rock mining operations on this very vein in our community now focusing on DLE in other areas in the US and around the globe to provide lithium.  This is yet another strong example demonstrating hard rock destructive mining is not the only way to fuel our lithium needs. 

Conversely, Piedmont Lithium is a group of investment bankers without any operating history or true mining experience in the US.  From the July 2021 Business NC article profiling Piedmont Lithium and its CEO Keith Phillips  "He’s more at home on Wall Street than in the brambles of the Tar Heel countryside 40 miles west of Charlotte, but investors are betting hundreds of millions that Phillips is correct. Before leading Piedmont Lithium, he spent three decades tending the global mining investments of Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, JPMorgan Chase and others."

Please join us on July 20th at 5:00 PM for a presentation by Piedmont Lithium to the Gaston County Commissioners meeting (Gaston County Courthouse, 325 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Way, Gastonia, NC). After four long years of scaring our residents and pressuring them to sell their family farms, the Gaston Commissioners will finally receive a presentation from Piedmont Lithium for their intentions for a nearly 2,300 acre strip open pit mine operation in our community.  We will be meeting under the covered walkway when you arrive.  Please wear red to show the board our widespread opposition to the mine. The presentation to the Commissioners will begin at 6 PM on the second floor.

Thank you again for your help preserving the beauty of Gaston County and the many hard working families that live here and are impacted and follow us on Facebook - stoppiedmontlithium