US government to take stake in Lithium Americas to boost Nevada project

The US government agreed to acquire a stake in Lithium Americas Corp., Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said, giving a boost to the Canadian company as it develops its Thacker Pass lithium project in Nevada.

The US will take a 5% stake in the Vancouver-based company, as well as a 5% stake in the company’s mining project of the largest lithium deposit in the US, Wright said in a Bloomberg Television interview on Tuesday, adding the move was necessary to help counter China’s control of the lithium market. The US-listed shares of Lithium Americas jumped as much as 41% in postmarket trading.

“It’s in America’s best interest to get that mine built,” Wright said. “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.”

The deal is the Trump administration’s latest effort to speed development of a domestic supply chain to counter China’s dominance over metals critical to defence, automaking and consumer electronics. In July, the US Defence Department announced a $400 million equity investment in MP Materials Corp. to fund a major new plant making rare-earth magnets.

Lithium Americas’ Thacker Pass project in Nevada is forecast to become a major lithium source for a domestic industry that currently produces only small amounts of the battery metal.

Lithium Americas and joint-venture partner General Motors Co. have been in talks with the Energy Department about the conditions to access a $2.3 billion federal loan, the company said this week after reports that the government was weighing an equity stake.

Lithium America didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment and GM declined to comment on the deal.

Bloomberg previously reported that administration officials sought to modify the loan’s terms, including requiring additional outside equity to protect taxpayers, after Lithium Americas and GM asked the Energy Department to restructure the financing because they couldn’t meet its initial conditions. Earlier discussions also included a push by the department for General Motors — which holds a 38% interest in the mine — to sign a binding offtake agreement for its production.

The Energy Department loan, finalised by the Biden administration in October 2024, is helping to 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.

Lithium Americas’ stock has risen 92% so far this year.

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