In windswept, remote Thacker Pass in the far northern reaches of Nevada permits approved for a massive lithium mine, proposed by Lithium Americas Corp., are drawing impassioned protest from the local indigenous population, ranchers, and environmentalists.
Carolyn Cole | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images
Shares of Lithium Americas popped more than 35% in extended trading Tuesday after U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright told Bloomberg that the U.S. government will take a small stake in the company.
The U.S. Department of Energy plans to take a 5% equity stake in Lithium Americas and a separate 5% stake directly in the Canadian miner’s Thacker Pass project, Wright told Bloomberg Television. General Motors has a minority stake in lithium mine, which is in northern Nevada.
Thacker Pass is expected to become one of the largest sources of lithium in North America, with the first phase of the project expected to begin operations in late 2027.
“We’ll own the mine itself and in the corporate entity that is the developer of the mine,” Wright said Tuesday on air.
The equity stake is the result of Lithium Americas, GM and the Energy Department renegotiating the terms of a $2.2 billion federal loan to support Thacker Pass. The Energy Department is allowing the companies to defer repayment of $182 million over five years in exchange for the equity stakes.
Lithium Americas CEO Jonathan Evans weclomed the Trump administration’s support.
“Together, we are onshoring large-scale U.S. lithium production, strengthening America’s supply chain, creating exceptional jobs and enhancing our long-term energy security and prosperity,” Evans said in a statement.
It is the latest move by the White House to take direct ownership in the mineral supply chain critical to U.S. interests, but the first such stake proposed for a Canadian company. Lithium Americas trades on both the Toronto Stock Exchange and the NYSE but is incorporated and domiciled in Canada.
Lithium Americas shares year to date
“This is just economic common sense,” Wright said. “Lithium Americas needs to raise some more capital so the mine is financially sound. We’re leaning in with a large amount of debt capital. So it’s just a more commercial transaction where we’re making sure lithium is going to be mined and refined in the United States.”
Shares of Lithium Americas have skyrocketed 92% year to date, with much of those gains powered by reports that the government was acquiring a stake.
