In Te-Moak Tribe of Western Shoshone of Nevada v. U.S. Department of the Interior, 608 F.3d 592 (9th Cir. 2010), the Ninth Circuit upheld a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) decision approving an exploration plan of operations even though the proposed plan did not identify the specific locations of drill sites or roads that may be built under the plan. The court adopted the reasoning from an earlier decision of the Interior Board of Land Appeals (IBLA), Great Basin Watch, 159 IBLA 324 (2003), and agreed with IBLA that, in some cases, BLM "may adapt its assessment of environmental impacts when the specific locations of an exploration project's activities cannot reasonably be ascertained until some time after the project is approved." Te-Moak, 608 F.3d at 600. The court acknowledged that "[a]n exploration project... inherently involves uncertainties; if mining companies knew the precise location of mineral deposits before drilling, exploration would not be required." Id. In approving mineral exploration projects, the court concluded that BLM could balance the uncertainties with its other duties under federal law.
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