LONE PINE, Calif.— The Bureau of Land Management has approved a proposal to expand a mining exploration project at Conglomerate Mesa, located on the traditional homelands of the Paiute-Shoshone and Timbisha Shoshone, about a mile west of California’s Death Valley National Park.

In a letter opposing the project, the Lone Pine Paiute-Shoshone Tribe said: “The Lone Pine Paiute-Shoshone Tribe has concerns for the area, as it was used by our people long ago when they traveled through to other areas; our people picked pine nuts, hunted, and camped there. Traces of our uses are still relevant today. It would be a shame to open it up to mining, which we are opposed to.”

In the next phase of gold mining exploration, Canadian company K2 Gold, through its subsidiary Mojave Precious Metals, proposed new road construction and 120 drill holes at 30 sites on Conglomerate Mesa. After receiving more than 14,000 public comments on its draft environmental analysis, most opposing the project, the BLM announced Tuesday it had chosen an alternative that limits the exploration to 76 drill holes at 22 sites, with no road construction and helicopter-only access.

This is the second time in seven years that the BLM has considered mining exploration at Conglomerate Mesa and restricted access to helicopters, a tacit acknowledgment of the damage new roads could cause.

While the chosen alternative doesn’t allow new roads, it still allows gold exploration in a fragile desert ecosystem, disrupting wildlife and endangering the habitat of threatened species such as the Inyo rock daisy.

“The Trump administration’s decision to resurrect this reckless gold mining exploration project on lands set aside for conservation shows complete disdain for our wild lands and the people who care about them,” said Lisa Belenky, senior counsel at the Center for Biological Diversity. “A mine in this area could push the Inyo rock daisy to extinction, all in the name of short-term profit. We’ve spent years fighting for this fragile desert landscape, and we're more determined than ever to defend it.”

“Conglomerate Mesa represents the heart of the California Desert National Conservation Lands and deserves to be protected from industry-scale mining,” said Jora Fogg, California associate program director of the Conservation Lands Foundation. “The Mojave Precious Metals project threatens this culturally significant and biologically dynamic desert landscape. Giveaways of our protected public lands to mining companies are another way this administration is robbing future generations of the intrinsic benefits of nature and their opportunity to experience and appreciate it.”

Conglomerate Mesa covers about 22,500 acres of public lands designated as California Desert National Conservation Lands and as an Area of Critical Environmental Concern because of its cultural significance, biodiversity and recreational opportunities. It was previously designated as a Wilderness Study Area and retains outstanding wilderness values, with no roads and a landscape unmarred by development.

“Conglomerate Mesa is an incredible landscape, between the Sierra Nevada and Death Valley, home to rare plants and wildlife, and one of California's Joshua Tree woodlands most likely to survive climate change,” said Jared Naimark, Western mining senior manager for Earthworks. “It has been stewarded since time immemorial by Shoshone and Paiute peoples who continue to use the area for traditional Pinyon gathering, and who advocate for protection of its historic and tribal cultural sites. We must do all we can to protect the Mesa from being destroyed by needless gold mining.”

An analysis of Tribal cultural resources, including an ethnographic study and in-depth conversations with local Tribes, led the BLM to identify one traditional cultural property, Conglomerate Mesa TCP, and 29 archeological sites. Of those, four precontact sites are eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.

The precontact sites include one lithic scatter, two rock art sites and one temporary camp with associated rock art. In addition, six historic-era charcoal production sites are eligible for the National Register because they could yield important information about site use, charcoal production lifeways and the evolution of the local mining industry.

“A large exploratory drilling project would be a loss for many members of our community, as such a project would close access to much of the area for anyone other than the miners,” said Wendy Schneider, executive director of Friends of the Inyo. “The area is prized for its recreational opportunities, including hunting, birdwatching and dark sky experiences.”

In addition to restricting public recreational access to the area and affecting opportunities in Death Valley National Park, the proposed project threatens rare desert plants, including the state-listed threatened Inyo rock daisy and the Badger Flat threadplant, a species new to science.

“The Inyo rock daisy is local to the Inyo Mountains and found nowhere else in the world, and the core of its distribution is centered on Conglomerate Mesa,” said Maria Jesus, a botanist with the California Botanic Garden and conservation chair of the California Native Plant Society’s Bristlecone Chapter.

“The project will negatively impact a thriving Joshua tree woodland that includes many new generations of trees,” said Nick Jensen, conservation program coordinator for the California Native Plant Society. “The Mesa provides a climate refuge for the species at a time when they are predicted to disappear from the majority of their range in the coming decades.”

“It is very disappointing that the Bureau of Land Management is greenlighting this second phase of exploratory drilling at Conglomerate Mesa, which will undoubtedly lead to more impacts to the Mesa’s many ecological, cultural, recreational, historic and scenic values,” said Linda Castro, assistant policy director at CalWild. “It is incomprehensible that water that is needed for the continued survival of local residents (human and wildlife) will be diverted to this project. California doesn’t need another foreign corporation mining for gold in the California Desert.”

Following exploration, it’s likely the rights will be sold to another company to develop an industrial-scale, cyanide heap-leach gold mine at Conglomerate Mesa. This type of mining uses cyanide to extract gold from the earth and poses significant hazards to local residents, plants and animals. Cyanide leach mining is highly water-intensive, consuming hundreds of millions of gallons.

“It breaks my heart to see land so beautiful — studded with bright pink and red cactus flowers, carpeted with purple milkvetch and apricot mallow, dotted with Joshua trees throughout — torn up by roads and drill pads,” said Lynn Boulton, a member of the Sierra Club’s Toiyabe Chapter. “The high price of gold isn't driven only by economic speculation; it also fuels mineral projects that damage our shared public lands — lands that are already under threat from climate change.”

“The utter destruction of Conglomerate Mesa, a few miles east of Keeler, by an open-pit, heap leach gold mining project would be a permanent and painful loss to our local communities and residents,” said Michael Prather, a 40-year resident of Lone Pine and retired teacher. “We camp, go pine nutting, hunt and explore on our public lands. It is why we live here.”