Trump Administration Eyes Stake in Lithium Mine Amid Global Mineral Race
Thacker Pass is the largest known lithium deposit in the U.S. and one of the most significant globally.
The Thacker Pass lithium mine is located in Humboldt County, Nevada. Interestingly, it resides within the McDermitt Caldera, an extinct supervolcano.
It is recognized as the largest known lithium deposit in the U.S. and one of the most significant globally, with the potential to supply a substantial portion of the world’s lithium demand for use in batteries, especially for electric vehicles and grid energy storage systems.
For those reasons, General Motors Co. conditionally agreed to invest $650 million in Lithium Americas in a deal that gives GM exclusive access to the first phase of the Thacker Pass mine. The last time we discussed this topic in 2023, a federal judge had just shot down a lawsuit brought by environmental groups to halt the construction of this project.
Now the Trump administration is seeking to secure a federal government equity stake, possibly up to 10%, in Lithium Americas as part of the renegotiation of a $2.26 billion Department of Energy loan for this lithium mine. Administration officials assert this move will ensure taxpayer returns as negotiations focus on modifying the loan’s repayment schedule rather than the overall timeline or amount.
The proposed stake is the latest example of the Trump administration intervening directly in the American economy as it has in taking stakes in Intel, MP Materials and other U.S. tech and minerals firms to promote industries it sees as critical to national security.
Slated to become the Western Hemisphere’s largest source of lithium when it opens in 2028, the Thacker Pass mine has been under construction for nearly a year with more than 600 contractors at the site roughly 25 miles (40 km) south of Nevada’s border with Oregon.
Thacker Pass is seen as a linchpin in building a domestic supply chain part of Washington’s long-standing drive to boost U.S. production of lithium, a metal used to make batteries for electric vehicles and other electronics.
…The loan has a 24-year term, with interest rates based on the U.S. Treasury rate as each tranche is drawn.
Lithium Americas was slated to make its first draw on the loan earlier this month but Trump officials sought to renegotiate terms amid concerns about the company’s ability to repay the loan given low lithium prices due to Chinese overproduction, according to the sources.
Exclusive: Trump wants piece of company in charge of America’s biggest lithium mine – Reuters https://t.co/MKTfx9kdbV via @GoogleNews
— Leslie Graves (@leelee66205) September 24, 2025
Lithium Americas’ stock took off on the announcement.
Lithium Americas stock doubled Wednesday as the Trump administration is seeking an equity stake in the mining company, which is based in Vancouver, British Columbia.
The White House proposed the equity stake as Lithium Americas renegotiates the terms of a $2.2 billion loan from the Department of Energy for its Thacker Pass mine in Nevada, a Trump administration official told CNBC. Reuters first reported the equity stake proposal.
Lithium Americas’ shares surged 95% to close at $6.01. The stock hit a session high of $6.23, up more than 100% over Tuesday’s close of $3.07. The miner has a market cap of about $1.5 billion.
It is the latest move by the White House to take direct ownership in the mineral supply chain critical to U.S. interests, but the first such stake proposed for a Canadian company. Lithium Americas trades on both the Toronto Stock Exchange and the NYSE but is incorporated and domiciled in Canada.
I would argue that the Trump administration’s attempt to obtain a stake here, as it was with Intel, is justified given our need to protect critical mineral supply chains and national security. This is especially true, as China is highly manipulative in the critical mineral markets.
But all terms must be transparently spelled out in this deal.
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Comments
To Barak,
Learn to mine.
Even if all EVs vanished tomorrow, lithium batteries would still be a crucial strategic AND consumer item.
Didn’t CCP China recently reopen one of their Lithium mines and crash the market?
China runs Canada
Don’t trust the Canadians they have slanted eyes
And wallets
Another major Lithium mining project under development is the Smackover formation.
https://www.usgs.gov/news/national-news-release/unlocking-arkansas-hidden-treasure-usgs-uses-machine-learning-show-large
This is an almost perfect example of how some so-called conservatives (“Republicans”) throw away any shred of free-market principles when they think that the (almost always short-term) situation calls for it.
There is nothing in the US Constitution that authorizes the US federal government to “take a stake” in a private company. In this case, there is exactly zero need for it as well. Let the market decide whether or not investment in a lithium mine is necessary. Should some country like China attempt to cut off the US supply, more will be found (yes, at a higher price) elsewhere until production from new mines ramps up. As the supply increases the price will drop.
Remember the law of supply and demand? Having the US government shove its sticky (and worse yet, utterly incompetent) fingers into a market only guarantees that it will be screwed up for a long time.
A great example of that are the dot-gov’s subsidies, both direct and indirect, for “renewable energy” which has resulted in horrific increases in electrical costs wherever they’ve been put in. The bird-choppers and farm erasers (windmills and solar) are uniformly much more expensive and less reliable than any other form of generation. Shining example (pun intended) is the solar plant at Ivanpah which ran for 12 years, never showed anything even approaching a profit despite massive construction and generation subsidies, and only produced reliable power from their teeny-tiny gas turbine “back-up” generator, which outproduced the entire acres-consuming solar mirror farm.
Get the government out of the markets, all of them. Go back to doing what the government is supposed to do, which is to protect the rights of the individual through the police, courts, and national defense.
agree
major mistake and short sighted on the trump admin on this
these companies slow walk knowing that the gov will use tax money to support them
With regret, we do not live in a perfect free-market world. Compromises are needed.
Lithium is one of the world’s more essential metals today. China can and will manipulate price and supply, and certainly will do so to harm the U.S. If a free-market approach leaves us vulnerable to such shenanigans, then we must do something else.
The Constitution is not a suicide pact — we are not obligated, in the name of ‘free markets’, to let foreign powers harm our country.