Federal land managers gave their final approval Thursday for a massive lithium-boron mine in Southern Nevada, becoming the first domestic lithium project to get full regulatory approval under the Biden Administration.

The Department of Interior and the Bureau of Land Management gave final approval Thursday to the Rhyolite Ridge Lithium-Boron mining project in Nevada, a project that proponents hope will help meet the high demand of critical minerals used to make electric vehicle batteries and wrest market control from China.

The mining project can quadruple the United States' lithium supply — but conservationists say it may also drive the endangered Tiehm's buckwheat to extinction.