Activists outraged after mining company announces plans to dig for rare earth elements next to US National Park

Source: The Independent

Monday 30 March 2026 17:57 EDT


An Australian mining company has launched plans to dig for rare earth elements right next to California's Joshua Tree National Park, alarming environmentalists who fear it will damage the local ecosystem. Just outside the boundary of the 32-year-old nature reserve, in the Pinto mountains south of State Route 62, Dateline Resources Ltd has staked out mining claims to around 32 square miles of rugged desert land where executives hope to uncover precious metals.

Heavy rare earth elements, known as HREEs, are crucial to the modern high-tech economy, used to manufacture everything from smartphones through electric vehicle motors to missile guidance systems. Currently China controls the vast majority of the world's HREE mining and processing, giving it a powerful bargaining chip in the ongoing U.S.-China trade war and spurring bipartisan U.S. efforts to develop a domestic supply chain.

But local conservationists told The Los Angeles Times that the Joshua Tree project — which is still in the exploration phase — threatened to damage "one of the most iconic landscapes in America" and imperil the Mojave desert tortoise, which is endangered in California. "It’s hard to think of a worse place for a massive industrial project than sensitive desert tortoise habitat on the very edge of Joshua Tree National Park," said Brendan Cummings of the Center for Biological Diversity.

He said that if the claims were to expand, and mining were to begin in earnest, it could end public access to the area, harm springs and groundwater reservoirs, and permanently alter the landscape. U.S. representative Jared Huffman, the ranking Democrat on the House natural resources committee, also told the L.A. Times that the project "has red flags waving in every way", citing Dateline's previous behavior on another mining project in the Mojave National Preserve.

Read more: https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/joshua-tree-mining-national-park-california-b2948725.html