The Biden administration is set to announce plans to lend more than $2 billion to Lithium Americas Corp., which is developing the country’s largest lithium deposit in Nevada, according to a person familiar with the situation.
The funding being offered to the company’s subsidiary Lithium Nevada Corp. by the the US Department of Energy will help finance construction of a lithium carbonate processing plant, the person said. The project will be adjacent to Lithium Americas’ $2.2 billion Thacker Pass 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.
The funding, which would be the largest-ever loan to a mining company from the DOE’s Loan Programs Office, comes amid mounting efforts to help build domestic supplies of critical minerals. General Motors Co., which has invested $650 million in Lithium Americas, is expected to be a long-term primary buyer from the project.
Demand for lithium, which also is used for grid storage and weapons, is projected to exceed current production by 2030. About 65% of the critical mineral is processed in China, although US lithium production is projected to increase 13-fold thanks to tax credits and other subsidies provided in 2022’s Inflation Reduction Act, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said Wednesday at a conference held by SAFE.