Century Lithium Files Angel Island Mine Plan With the BLM

Century Lithium Corp. (TSXV: LCE; OTCQX: CYDVF) submitted a Mine Plan of Operations and Nevada Reclamation Permit Application for its 100%-owned Angel Island lithium project in Esmeralda County, Nevada, to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's Tonopah Field Office on September 3, 2026, starting the federal NEPA environmental review.

Century Lithium Corp. (TSXV: LCE; OTCQX: CYDVF; Frankfurt: C1Z) has taken the step that converts a Nevada lithium deposit into a federal permitting file. The company said it submitted a Mine Plan of Operations and a Nevada Reclamation Permit Application for its 100%-owned Angel Island Mine Project in Esmeralda County, Nevada, delivering the documents on September 3, 2026, to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's Battle Mountain District, Tonopah Field Office.

The Plan of Operations, usually shortened to PoO, is not a routine filing. It is the "proposed action" — the specific, bounded description of what the company intends to build, disturb and eventually reclaim. Everything the BLM analyses from here forward is measured against that description. The company said the Plan was prepared in accordance with BLM surface management regulations at 43 CFR Subpart 3809 and Nevada reclamation regulations at NAC 519A.

"The submission of the Mine Plan of Operations for Angel Island is a substantial milestone for Century Lithium," said Bill Willoughby, President and CEO, in the company's INN Battery Metals announcement. "It defines the Project the BLM will analyze, starts the clock on the environmental review, and reflects multiple years of baseline data collection, engineering, and coordination with the agencies."

What a Plan of Operations Actually Triggers

On federal land administered by the BLM, a hardrock mining project of any meaningful footprint cannot proceed on a notice alone. It requires an approved Plan of Operations, and approving that plan is a federal action — which is what pulls in the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA. NEPA does not decide whether a mine is a good idea. It requires the agency to study and disclose the environmental consequences of what it is being asked to approve, and to consider alternatives, before it signs.

That is why Willoughby's phrasing matters more than it might appear. "Starts the clock" is precise language: until a plan is filed and deemed complete, there is no scope to analyse, no contractor to appoint, no public comment period to schedule. Once the file is accepted, the sequence becomes institutional rather than discretionary — scoping, draft analysis, public comment, response, final analysis, and a record of decision.

The second document in the package, the Nevada Reclamation Permit Application under NAC 519A, runs on a parallel state track. Nevada requires an approved reclamation plan and financial assurance — a bond or equivalent instrument sized to the cost of returning the site to a stable, approved condition — before surface disturbance begins. Federal approval without state reclamation cover does not get a shovel in the ground. Filing both at once is the efficient play.

Why Esmeralda County Is the Address on So Many Lithium Files

Angel Island sits in Esmeralda County, in the southwest corner of Nevada — the same broad district that has made the state the centre of gravity for American lithium ambitions. The appeal is structural: the geology is there, the land is largely federal and therefore permittable through a single agency chain, and Nevada has a mining regulatory apparatus that knows how to process these files without starting from first principles.

The trade-off is equally structural. Federal land means NEPA. NEPA means a public record, a comment docket, and standing for anyone who wants to test the analysis in court. Nevada lithium projects have repeatedly shown that the binding constraint on an American battery-metals supply chain is rarely the resource and rarely the market — it is the calendar, and the calendar is written by agencies and, occasionally, by judges.

Century Lithium has, by its own account, spent multiple years on baseline data collection before filing. That is the part investors tend to under-weight. Baseline work — water, air, wildlife, cultural resources, vegetation, sometimes multiple seasons of each — is slow, expensive and produces no news flow. But an environmental analysis built on thin baseline data is the most reliable way to lose a case later. Front-loading it is a defensive investment in the durability of the eventual approval.

The Financing Question NEPA Creates

Century Lithium has, by its own account, spent multiple years on baseline data collection before filing.

Permitting is where junior developers meet their hardest capital problem. The period between filing a Plan of Operations and receiving a record of decision produces obligations without producing revenue: consultants, agency coordination, responses to information requests, engineering refinement as alternatives are defined. Meanwhile the equity that funds it is issued at whatever price the market is willing to pay at that moment.

Shares of Century Lithium's US over-the-counter line, CYDVF, last traded at 0.20 as of the close on Friday, September 11, 2026, up 0.05% on the day from a prior close of 0.19, with a session range of 0.18 to 0.20. It was a firm session for the broader market — the S&P 500 tracker closed at $764.29, up 0.85%, the Nasdaq 100 tracker at $714.88, up 0.87%, and the Dow tracker at $525.79, up 0.97% — so the day's move in the lithium developer was, in relative terms, a shrug rather than a re-rating.

That is a common pattern with permitting milestones. They are structurally important and financially invisible in the short run, because the market has already priced a probability of eventual approval and the filing only shifts that probability a little. What the filing does change is the shape of the risk: the project is now defined, the review is now running, and the outcomes narrow toward approval, approval with modifications, or delay.

What to Watch on the Federal Docket

Several checkpoints ahead will tell investors more than the filing itself did:

Completeness determination. The BLM must decide the Plan contains enough to analyse. Requests for additional information at this stage are normal but add weeks or months.
Level of NEPA review. Whether the agency proceeds by environmental assessment or the fuller environmental impact statement is the single biggest determinant of how long this takes.
Scoping and public comment. The identity and volume of commenters — tribes, counties, water users, conservation groups — is an early read on litigation risk after a decision.
State reclamation permit and bonding. The size of the financial assurance Nevada requires is a real cash call, and it lands before production.
Century Lithium's own funding. Any equity or strategic financing announced during the review will indicate how the company plans to bridge from a permitted project to a built one.

None of that is resolved by a September filing. But the distinction between a lithium company with a resource and a lithium company with a project under federal review is real, and Century Lithium has now crossed it. The next several quarters at Angel Island will be decided in a field office in Tonopah rather than in the market.

Key facts

Filing: Mine Plan of Operations and Nevada Reclamation Permit Application, submitted September 3, 2026
Receiving agency: U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Battle Mountain District, Tonopah Field Office
Project: Angel Island Mine Project, 100%-owned, Esmeralda County, Nevada
CYDVF last close: 0.20, +0.05%, as of 20:00 GMT Friday, September 11, 2026

Frequently asked questions

What did Century Lithium file and when?

Century Lithium Corp. submitted a Mine Plan of Operations and a Nevada Reclamation Permit Application for its 100%-owned Angel Island Mine Project on September 3, 2026. The documents went to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's Battle Mountain District, Tonopah Field Office, and were prepared under BLM surface management rules at 43 CFR Subpart 3809 and Nevada reclamation rules at NAC 519A.

Where is the Angel Island project located?

Angel Island is in Esmeralda County, in southwestern Nevada, USA. The county sits within the broader Nevada lithium district that has attracted numerous development projects, in part because much of the land is federally administered and therefore permitted through a single agency chain, and because the state has an established mining regulatory framework.

What is a Plan of Operations and why does it matter?

A Plan of Operations is the document a company files with the Bureau of Land Management describing exactly what it intends to build, disturb and reclaim on federal land. It becomes the agency's "proposed action" and the basis for environmental analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act. Without an approved plan, a mine of meaningful scale cannot proceed.

What does NEPA review involve?

The National Environmental Policy Act requires a federal agency to study and publicly disclose the environmental consequences of an action it is asked to approve, and to consider alternatives. In practice that means scoping, a draft analysis, a public comment period, responses to comments, a final analysis and a record of decision. NEPA does not itself approve or reject a project.

How did Century Lithium shares perform around the filing?

The company's US over-the-counter line, CYDVF, last traded at 0.20 as of the close on Friday, September 11, 2026, up 0.05% from a prior close of 0.19, with a session range of 0.18 to 0.20. That was a muted move against a broadly higher market, with the S&P 500 tracker up 0.85% on the day.

What is the Nevada reclamation permit for?

Nevada regulations at NAC 519A require an approved reclamation plan and financial assurance before surface disturbance begins. The financial assurance is a bond or equivalent instrument sized to the estimated cost of returning the site to an approved stable condition. Federal approval alone is not sufficient to start work without the state permit in place.

Sources

CENTURY LITHIUM FILES MINE PLAN OF OPERATIONS FOR ANGEL ISLAND LITHIUM PROJECT IN NEVADA — INN Battery Metals

Photo: Aliaksei Lepik · Pexels Licence — source