The endangered species listing/not listing probably wont come out until next week. It will take a few days once submitted to hit the federal register on fws - species status page.
While listing is likely there is still a chance at a non-listing pending on what CCA agreement is drawn up between FWS and INR that cannot yet be ruled out as a possibility.
IMO its likely to be a neutral announcement - Listing requiring further paperwork as the negatives but a CCA to progress the project to get a permit and de-risk any further legalities as the positives.
Best case is CCA without a listing being warranted.
Worst case is a listing without a CCA agreement or a delay in reaching a CCA agreement.
As said before the SSA (species status assessment)
Species Profile for Tiehm's buckwheat(Eriogonum tiehmii) (fws.gov) gave scenarios on various actions moving forward with the plant. The only scenario FWS believes the plant species will continue to exist was under the scenario on which no mine went ahead and the species was listed and left to ESA protections and nature.
If they went with this scenario, the population has diminished significantly in the last decade with 2019 being a major blow as a natural event (herbivore activity). How exactly would listing it as endangered and leaving it to nature with say a fence and some monitoring under ESA stop major events happening in the future? Reality is it wouldn't. Rodents could chew through some fence structures or climb them and then monitoring would be another item that would be necessary.
Where exactly is all this money coming from? Donnelly himself said the world is currently in extinction crisis, so with so many species needing ESA protection how will they adequately fund this???? Its unrealistic.
The best solution is an agreement between Ioneer and FWS. We mine some of the land and move a small portion of the species. Ioneer then promise to assist in sustainability of the species. Ioneer helps pay for further research and propagation efforts to improve its situation. Win win for both parties as they no longer have a massive bill with no mining royalties.
No brainer really, an if FWS and BLM dont want to issue permits thats fine. Ioneer will cease to exist, they will lose millions/billions of dollars in mining royalties and im sure Ioneer management will then push on these two bodies to ensure the plant species has money well spent on it by those organisations.
(20min delay)