PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • February 29, 2024
The Board of Environmental Protection has unanimously agreed to amend Maine’s strict mining rules to allow for open-pit excavation of certain metals, including those fueling the country’s transition to clean energy, as long as the extraction will not pollute the environment. The provisional amendment – the result of a state law adopted last July intended to overhaul the mining law to allow for the extraction of non-reactive minerals like spodumene, the hard rock source of lithium – now heads back to the Legislature for final consideration.