The U.S. government has acquired a minority stake in Lithium Americas, a Vancouver-based company developing the Thacker Pass lithium mine in northern Nevada. The Department of Energy (DOE) will hold a 5% equity stake in both Lithium Americas and the Thacker Pass project, which is operated as a joint venture with General Motors.
Thacker Pass is considered an important project for reducing U.S. dependence on China for lithium, a key component in batteries used for cell phones, electric vehicles, and renewable energy storage. China currently leads global lithium processing.
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright stated, “helps reduce our dependence on foreign adversaries for critical minerals by strengthening domestic supply chains and ensures better stewardship of American taxpayer dollars.”
Once operational, Thacker Pass is expected to produce 40,000 metric tons of battery-quality lithium carbonate annually during its first phase. This output would be sufficient to support the production of approximately 800,000 electric vehicles each year.
This move follows other recent government interventions in private industry under the Trump administration. The government has taken a 10% stake in Intel through converting previous grants and commitments into equity. In July, $400 million was spent on MP Materials stock, making the U.S. government the largest shareholder in the Las Vegas-based rare earths miner. Agreements have also been made with Nvidia and AMD to secure a 15% share of revenue from certain chip sales to China.
Lithium Americas announced it had reached a non-binding agreement with the DOE to access an initial $435 million federal loan drawdown. The DOE will defer $182 million in debt service payments over the first five years of this loan arrangement.
Negotiations between the White House and Lithium Americas advanced last month after agreeing on modifications to an estimated $2.3 billion federal loan that could enable extraction at Thacker Pass to proceed. General Motors has committed more than $900 million toward developing the site, which contains enough lithium resources to build up to one million electric vehicles per year.
Dan Ives of Wedbush described Thacker Pass as “a massive opportunity” for reducing reliance on foreign sources for lithium supplies.
“Despite having some of the largest deposits, the U.S. produced less than 1% of the global lithium supply but this deal helps reduce dependence on foreign adversaries for critical minerals strengthening domestic supply chains and ensuring better stewardship of American taxpayer dollars with lithium production set to grow exponentially over the coming years,” he wrote.
