Canadian lithium mining firm Lithium Americas has closed its joint venture with GM to develop the Thacker Pass lithium mine in Humboldt County, Nevada. The mine will supply battery-quality lithium carbonate, contributing to North America’s supply chain for critical minerals in the EV manufacturing process.
Thacker Pass is 62 percent owned by Lithium Americas, and GM has a 38 percent interest for a total of $625 million in cash and letters of credit. GM has already contributed $330 million of cash to the joint venture alongside Lithium Americas’s $138 million.
However, the biggest investor in the mine is the U.S. Department of Energy, which is providing a $2.26 billion loan for Thacker Pass. The loan was approved during President Donald Trump’s first term and granted by the Biden Administration.
“Together, Lithium Americas and GM are focused on bringing Thacker Pass to production to significantly improve the domestic output of critical lithium supply to reduce dependence on foreign suppliers and to start creating new jobs and bringing economic activity to northern Nevada,” said Jonathan Evans, President and CEO of Lithium Americas. “We are targeting to announce the final investment decision in early 2025. Our engineering, procurement, and construction management contractor, Bechtel, and other major contractors have been ramping up work at the site to de-risk the construction schedule as we continue to target completion in late 2027.”
Construction for this mining operation is expected to take at least three years, and it’s expected to open by the end of this decade. Once operational, the mine is expected to maintain up to 360 full-time jobs. When fully operational, Thacker Pass is expected to produce 40,000 metric tons of lithium carbonate annually in its first phase, which is enough for batteries for up to 800,000 electric vehicles.
The site is located just south of the Nevada-Oregon border. Initial construction began in March of 2023 after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied a request for an emergency injunction that would have prevented the project from moving forward in light of a court case brought forward by Indigenous communities, ranchers, and conservationists. Indigenous groups claim that the mine is built illegally near the sacred site where their ancestors were massacred in the late 1800s.
Earlier last year, Nevada Chief Judge Miranda Du ordered the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to investigate the potential environmental impact of dumped waste products near the mine site.
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