{"id":270626,"date":"2025-10-02T01:20:19","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T01:20:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/270626\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T01:20:19","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T01:20:19","slug":"us-government-takes-equity-stake-in-one-of-the-worlds-largest-lithium-mines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/270626\/","title":{"rendered":"US government takes equity stake in one of the world\u2019s largest lithium mines"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump\u2019s administration is taking a 5 percent equity ownership of mining company Lithium Americas, on top of another 5 percent stake in the company\u2019s joint mining project with GM in Nevada, the Department of Energy announced<\/a> yesterday. The mine at Thacker Pass<\/a> is expected to become the largest producer of lithium in the Western Hemisphere once it opens in 2028.<\/p>\n

Lithium is a crucial component in batteries used for electric vehicles, wind and solar energy storage, and rechargeable devices of all kinds. Both the Biden and Trump administrations have sought to wean the US off foreign imports of lithium. This announcement is the latest step President Trump has taken to assert more control over domestic supply chains for key materials.<\/p>\n

The latest step President Trump has taken to assert more control over domestic supply chains for key materials<\/p>\n

The Thacker Pass mine is supposed to produce around 40,000 metric tons of lithium carbonate annually for batteries once it\u2019s fully operational. US production of lithium is currently under 5,000 metric tons. For comparison, China \u2014 the third-biggest lithium producer after Australia and Chile \u2014 already produces 40,000 metric tons annually.<\/p>\n

The mine has been under construction since 2023, following fierce opposition from nearby Native<\/a> American<\/a> tribes<\/a>. Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union found that the federal government\u2019s permitting of the mine violated Indigenous peoples\u2019 rights in a February 2025 report<\/a>, alleging it failed to obtain \u201cfree, prior, and informed consent<\/a>\u201d from affected tribes. Ranchers<\/a> and environmental<\/a> groups<\/a> concerned about the mine\u2019s impact on local water sources and endangered species have also opposed the project.<\/p>\n

Lithium Americas secured a $2.26 billion loan agreement<\/a> with the Biden administration in October 2024. In restructuring the loan, the Department of Energy says the revised agreement includes more than $100 million of new equity. Energy Secretary Chris Wright told<\/a> Bloomberg Television<\/a> that the US needed to take an equity stake to ensure the mine\u2019s viability as lithium prices drop worldwide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donald Trump\u2019s administration is taking a 5 percent equity ownership of mining company Lithium Americas, on top of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":270627,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[64,5495,746,50,153,159,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-270626","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-energy","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-policy","13":"tag-science","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115301949293664132","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}