Jindalee Lithium Secures Dual Permits, Eyes September Drill Start

Two federal and state approvals now sit on the books for Jindalee Lithium’s McDermitt Lithium Project in Oregon. The final state-level permit landed in August 2026, completing a regulatory sequence that began when the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) signed off on the project’s Exploration Plan of Operations in December 2025. All that stands between drill steel and the ground at McDermitt is a fire waiver and a September calendar date.

McDermitt holds an estimated 21.5 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE), placing it among the largest known lithium deposits in the United States. Active feasibility-stage drilling at this scale carries weight for domestic critical minerals supply chains. What follows covers exactly what has been approved, when drilling begins and why it may slip, what the 100-site program is designed to deliver, and how results feed into the broader feasibility study and resource confidence picture.

DOGAMI Greenlights McDermitt Phase 1 Drilling

Oregon’s Department of Geology and Mineral Industries (DOGAMI) issued the final state-level permit required for Phase 1 drilling at McDermitt in August 2026. The approval was secured by HiTech Minerals Inc., Jindalee Lithium’s US subsidiary.

This clearance completes a dual-approval process. The BLM’s December 2025 Exploration Plan of Operations (EPO) approval authorised exploratory drilling at up to 168 sites across approximately 7,200 acres of BLM-managed land. Together, the two approvals remove the principal regulatory barriers to field operations.

The two permits at a glance:

• BLM Exploration Plan of Operations: Federal approval, December 2025, authorising up to 168 drill sites across approximately 7,200 acres
• DOGAMI permit: State-level approval, August 2026, completing the final regulatory clearance for Phase 1 drilling

For investors tracking US critical minerals development, dual regulatory clearance at this level represents a meaningful de-risking event, moving McDermitt from a project awaiting approval to one awaiting mobilisation.

Dual regulatory clearance of this kind, covering both federal BLM authorisation and a state-level DOGAMI permit, represents the completion of the two most significant permitting hurdles a US exploration project faces before mobilisation, and each layer carries distinct legal and operational implications for project timelines.

What Phase 1 drilling is designed to deliver

Phase 1 targets up to 100 drill sites within the central deposit, the area defined in the 2024 pre-feasibility study (PFS) mine design envelope. The remaining 68 sites authorised under the full EPO are reserved for subsequent phases.

The program is structured around four technical objectives, each tied directly to an active feasibility study input:

1. Resource confidence upgrade: Convert portions of the current inferred resource to indicated status, strengthening the resource model for feasibility assessment and eventual project financing
2. Metallurgical sampling: Collect fresh samples for process design and metallurgical testing
3. Geotechnical data: Gather ground condition and pit slope data for mine and infrastructure engineering
4. Environmental and hydrogeological baseline: Acquire data to support future development-stage permitting

Forged Drilling Corp has been contracted to execute the program, with site preparation activities expected to precede mobilisation.

CEO Ian Rodger has stated that the drilling program will deliver critical inputs for the ongoing McDermitt Feasibility Study, covering resource confidence upgrades, metallurgical samples, and environmental and geotechnical data.

Each of these four objectives maps to a feasibility study input, meaning Phase 1 results will have tangible flow-on effects to resource classification, mine design, and project valuation.

Understanding the McDermitt resource and why its scale matters

The most recent Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE), published in February 2023 and compliant with the JORC Code, quantifies the deposit as follows:

Cut-off grade: 1,000 ppm Li

The resource is reported above a cut-off grade of 1,000 ppm Li, and that threshold directly shapes which tonnes enter the economic model; small changes to this parameter can materially alter the tonnage reported in each resource category.

The 21.5 Mt LCE total places McDermitt among the largest, if not the largest, lithium deposits in the United States. Nearly half that tonnage, 10.4 Mt LCE, sits in the inferred category.

That distinction matters. Inferred resources carry greater geological uncertainty than indicated resources; they are based on limited geological evidence and sampling. Feasibility studies and financing models assign less weight to inferred tonnage because the geological confidence behind it is lower. Phase 1 drilling is aimed at closing precisely this gap: converting inferred material to indicated status within the central deposit, so the feasibility study rests on a firmer resource foundation.

The JORC Code classification criteria establish that inferred resources are supported by limited geological evidence and sampling, which is why feasibility studies and project financing models assign materially less weight to inferred tonnage than to indicated resources with higher geological confidence.

September Start Conditional on Fire Waiver

Both permits are in hand, but drilling remains contingent on the issuance of a fire waiver. Elevated wildfire conditions across Oregon during the 2026 season have prompted authorities to impose additional fire-safety conditions on industrial activities in the region. This is a standard industrial precondition, not a project-specific obstacle.

Jindalee has incorporated fire suppression measures into its operational plan, centred on dedicated water trucks that serve three distinct functions:

• Drilling support during active operations
• Dust control across drill sites and access roads
• Emergency fire response capacity on site

The company expects the waiver to be granted as conditions ease, consistent with a September 2026 drilling start. Initial Phase 1 results are targeted for the December 2026 quarter.

Investors should note that the September start date is conditional rather than confirmed. A short delay tied to fire season conditions is a known and planned-for variable. Jindalee’s fire suppression planning suggests the company has anticipated the contingency rather than being caught by it.

McDermitt’s place in the US critical minerals landscape

Jindalee holds 100% ownership of McDermitt through HiTech Minerals Inc. and retains full, unencumbered offtake rights. No existing supply agreements constrain the company’s options. That gives Jindalee complete flexibility over future arrangements, whether with US domestic manufacturers, government-backed programs, or other counterparties.

Single-company ownership of an unencumbered, large-scale US lithium asset at this stage of development is structurally uncommon. In the context of bipartisan US policy pressure to build domestic critical minerals supply chains and reduce dependence on foreign lithium sources, a project of McDermitt’s scale and ownership structure carries weight beyond the company’s own valuation.

Regional environmental organisations, ranching operations, and tribal stakeholders have raised concerns about ecosystem and resource impacts in the McDermitt Caldera area. The environmental and hydrogeological baseline data being collected during Phase 1 is designed, in part, to inform future permitting decisions and shape the company’s engagement with these groups. How Jindalee manages this process is likely to have a bearing on the pace and conditions of development-stage approvals.

The environmental and hydrogeological baseline data collected during Phase 1 is designed to inform development-stage permitting, a process that carries its own distinct regulatory requirements beyond the exploration approvals already secured, and one that typically involves a broader set of agency reviews and community consultation obligations.

McDermitt moves from feasibility prep to active de-risking

The DOGAMI approval marks the latest step in a development sequence that has accelerated over the past three years. The full timeline:

Phase 1 results, expected in the December 2026 quarter, will represent the first major data return from a drilling program explicitly tied to active feasibility study inputs. The data will feed directly into resource reclassification, metallurgical assumptions, mine design parameters, and environmental baseline documentation.

For investors, the December quarter result release will be a tangible milestone to track: the first independent technical data from a feasibility-stage campaign at one of the largest lithium projects in the United States. Those results are expected to provide clearer visibility on resource confidence, process design, and project valuation, all of which are central to potential future financing discussions.

For investors wanting to understand why a deposit of McDermitt’s scale attracts attention beyond short-term lithium price movements, a dedicated explainer on lithium demand drivers across electric vehicles, AI energy storage, and robotics maps the structural consumption picture that defines the long-run case for large-scale US lithium development.

This article is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice. Investors should conduct their own research and consult with financial professionals before making investment decisions. Forward-looking statements regarding drilling timelines and results are subject to change based on operational conditions and regulatory requirements.