U.S. grants $2B loan to build lithium mine

Firm hails ‘milestone’ for Thacker Pass plant

RENO — President Joe Biden’s administration has conditionally agreed to loan more than $2 billion to the company building a controversial lithium mine in Nevada with the largest known U.S. deposit of the metal critical to making batteries for electric vehicles key to his renewable energy agenda.

The U.S Energy Department agreed Thursday to provide the

$2.26 billion conditional loan to Canada-based Lithium Americas to help cover costs at its open pit mine deeper than the length of a football field near the Oregon line.

The loan would help finance the a lithium carbonate processing plant at the Thacker Pass mine about 200 miles north of Reno — “the largest-proven lithium reserves in North America,” DOE said in a statement.

“Thacker Pass is a treasure trove of lithium — key to strengthening U.S. energy security and electrifying America,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in a message posted Friday on X.

“By presenting this $2.26B conditional loan, we’ll help level the global playing field and supercharge clean energy manufacturing nationwide,” she said.

Biden’s renewable energy agenda aimed at easing U.S. reliance on fossil fuels so as to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is expected to be a key issue in his re-election bid against ex-president Donald Trump, who has said he would focus on drilling for more oil.

The department said lithium carbonate from Thacker Pass could support the production of batteries for up to 800,000 electric vehicles annually, avoiding the consumption of 317 million gallons of gasoline per year.

“Today’s announcement reinforces the Biden-harris Administration’s whole-of-government approach to strengthening America’s critical materials supply chain, which is essential to building America’s clean transportation future and enhancing our national and energy security,” DOE said Thursday.

Lithium Americas said the loan would cover the vast majority of the first phase of the Thacker Pass project, which is now estimated to cost $2.93 billion.

The conditional commitment to the government’s loan “is a significant milestone for Thacker Pass, which will help meet the growing domestic need for lithium chemicals and strengthen our nation’s security,” said Jonathan Evans, president of Lithium Americas.

“The United States has an incredible opportunity to lead the next chapter of global electrification in a way that both strengthens our battery supply chains and ensures that the economic benefits are directed toward American workers, companies and communities,” he said.

Environmental groups and leaders of three tribes spent nearly two years fighting the mine, which they say borders the sacred site of a massacre of more than two dozen Native Americans in 1865.

But a federal judge in Reno dismissed the latest challenges in December, and the chairman of the Reno Sparks Indian Colony at the forefront of the legal battle said weeks later they were abandoning any future appeals.

The acting chairwoman of the Nevada tribe closest to the mine said her members support the project.

“Thacker Pass will provide important economic and employment opportunities for members of our Tribe,” Larina Bell of the Fort Mcdermitt Paiute Shoshone Tribe said in a statement.

Lithium Americas said site preparation has been completed, including all site clearing, the commissioning of a water supply system, site access improvements and site infrastructure.