(Bloomberg) — The US government agreed to acquire a stake in Lithium Americas Corp., giving a boost to the Canadian company as it develops its Thacker Pass lithium project in Nevada.
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The US will take a 5% equity stake in the Vancouver-based company and a 5% stake in its Thacker Pass mining project, the largest lithium deposit in the country. The company also reached an accord with the Department of Energy to draw on a previously agreed upon $2.23 billion loan.
The plan marks the Trump administration’s latest effort to speed development of a domestic supply chain to counter China’s dominance over metals critical to defense, automaking and consumer electronics. In July, the US Defense Department announced a $400 million equity investment in MP Materials Corp. to fund a major new plant making rare-earth magnets.
Thacker Pass, which is being developed in a joint venture with General Motors Co., is forecast to become a major lithium source for a domestic industry that currently produces only small amounts of the battery metal.
“It’s in America’s best interest to get that mine built,” US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a Bloomberg Television interview Tuesday. “We’re going to see a huge new lithium resource come on. In the next couple of years it will displace a massive amount of imported lithium.”
US-listed shares of Lithium Americas soared as much as 43% Wednesday in premarket trading.
Lithium Americas said Wednesday it reached an agreement to draw $435 million of the loan provided by the Energy Department. The size of the loan was reduced slightly from $2.26 billion previously. The department also agreed to defer $182 million of debt service over the first five years.
The loan, finalized by the Biden administration in October 2024, will help finance construction of a lithium carbonate processing plant, adjacent to the $2.2 billion mine, one of the country’s most promising opportunities to produce the metal that’s used in electric-vehicle batteries, solar panels and wind turbines.
Once fully operational, the facility is expected to produce approximately 40,000 metric tons per year of battery-grade lithium carbonate for use in lithium-ion batteries, the Energy Department said in a statement.
Bloomberg previously reported that Lithium Americas and GM asked the Department of Energy to restructure the loan because they couldn’t meet its initial conditions.
(Bloomberg) — The US government agreed to acquire a stake in Lithium Americas Corp., giving a boost to the Canadian company as it develops its Thacker Pass lithium project in Nevada.
Most Read from Bloomberg
The US will take a 5% equity stake in the Vancouver-based company and a 5% stake in its Thacker Pass mining project, the largest lithium deposit in the country. The company also reached an accord with the Department of Energy to draw on a previously agreed upon $2.23 billion loan.
The plan marks the Trump administration’s latest effort to speed development of a domestic supply chain to counter China’s dominance over metals critical to defense, automaking and consumer electronics. In July, the US Defense Department announced a $400 million equity investment in MP Materials Corp. to fund a major new plant making rare-earth magnets.
Thacker Pass, which is being developed in a joint venture with General Motors Co., is forecast to become a major lithium source for a domestic industry that currently produces only small amounts of the battery metal.
“It’s in America’s best interest to get that mine built,” US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a Bloomberg Television interview Tuesday. “We’re going to see a huge new lithium resource come on. In the next couple of years it will displace a massive amount of imported lithium.”
US-listed shares of Lithium Americas soared as much as 43% Wednesday in premarket trading.
Lithium Americas said Wednesday it reached an agreement to draw $435 million of the loan provided by the Energy Department. The size of the loan was reduced slightly from $2.26 billion previously. The department also agreed to defer $182 million of debt service over the first five years.
The loan, finalized by the Biden administration in October 2024, will help finance construction of a lithium carbonate processing plant, adjacent to the $2.2 billion mine, one of the country’s most promising opportunities to produce the metal that’s used in electric-vehicle batteries, solar panels and wind turbines.
Once fully operational, the facility is expected to produce approximately 40,000 metric tons per year of battery-grade lithium carbonate for use in lithium-ion batteries, the Energy Department said in a statement.
Bloomberg previously reported that Lithium Americas and GM asked the Department of Energy to restructure the loan because they couldn’t meet its initial conditions.
