Stop Unauthorized Mining in Mojave National Preserve

Mojave National Preserve protects one of the largest desert preserves in the world. It safeguards wild desert landscapes, irreplaceable cultural sites, and plants and wildlife found nowhere else on the planet.

Park

Mojave National Preserve

This vast, rugged park site encompasses 1.6 million acres and makes up one of the most diverse desert environments in the world.

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Today, the national park site is under attack. A foreign-owned mining company is bulldozing park land and tearing through fragile habitat, all without any authorization to do so. And the Trump administration is encouraging them to keep going, disregarding the authority of the National Park Service and undermining the policies that protect our parks.

Destructive mining activity is already happening at the Colosseum Mine, which sits in Mojave’s Clark Mountain region — an area with the second-highest concentration of rare plants in California and vital desert bighorn sheep habitat.

The company behind the operation, Dateline Resources, is relying on an expired mining plan from 1985, issued by the Bureau of Land Management, to justify ongoing exploratory activity. But since 1994, this land has been part of the National Park System, and only the National Park Service has the authority to approve mining here.

This blatant threat to Mojave National Preserve sets a dangerous precedent that industrial mining interests can override longstanding park protections.

We cannot allow these iconic places to be carved up for the benefit of foreign interests and big corporations. NPCA is fighting back, leading efforts to stop this destructive mining operation, hold the administration accountable, and defend the National Park Service’s authority over park lands.