This story appears as part of a collaboration to strengthen investigative journalism in Maine between the BDN and The Maine Monitor. Read more about the partnership .

It was more than a year ago that Maine regulators approved final changes to Maine’s 2017 mining law, capping a yearlong process that was designed to clear the way for the development of a lithium-rich deposit in the western part of the state.

So far, the overhaul has done little, if anything, to inspire Mary and Gary Freeman, the owners of the land in Newry where the deposit was discovered in 2021 , to move forward with a small-scale spodumene mining operation.

Mary Freeman told The Maine Monitor in an email that the project remains “on hold.”

“Unless the price of spodumene soars, the costs to remove it under cu

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