I do not know the details of the case, but one is crystal clear: Nevada is not South America, where a corporation can use various resources to mitigate any risk to your mining project.

To some extent, US is still a free country, where someone gain is inevitably a someone else loss. And pretend, that this mining operation is somehow going to be “environment friendly” is good for PR, but detached from the reality. Hence I would be quite surprised, should Thacker Pass would open without an array of lawsuits attached to the project.

What is bit surprising to me, is that such a lawsuits has emerged now, after the government gave a green light to the project. It is not clear to me, why this issue was not part of the EIA (or US equivalent) process.

IMHO LAC should create a pension fund for this family and settle the case outside of the court. Considering the scale of this operation, I would probably put aside some portion of the Revenue to deal with cases like that, just to stay away from the troubles. I believe, EXAR has similar program for the “locals” down in Cauchari-Olaroz.