The U.S. government is strategically investing in Lithium Americas to strengthen domestic battery metal supply chains

Trump’s Industrial Economy policies just took down their latest scalp, so to speak. 

One week after Bloomberg reported that the White House was considering a 10% stake in one of the largest North American lithium mining companies, Lithium Americas, on Tuesday afternoon, the US government agreed to acquire a stake in the company, Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said Tuesday on Bloomberg TV, giving a boost to the Canadian company as it develops its Thacker Pass lithium project in Nevada.

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 defense, automaking and consumer electronics. In July, the US Defense Department announced a $400 million equity investment in MP Materials Corp. to fund a major new plant making rare-earth magnets.It was followed by a similar deal with chip giant Intel. 

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, which produces minerals used in electric-vehicle batteries, is also in talks with automaker General Motors over the terms of its $2.26 billion government loan for a large lithium mining project it is developing in Nevada.

Those discussions included debating whether the U.S. should take a stake in Lithium Americas as a condition for receiving a loan, the Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month.

The US-listed shares of Lithium Americas have risen 92% this year and soared 32% to $7.53 in after-hours trading Tuesday. 

https://oilprice.com/Metals/Commodities/US-Government-Invests-in-Lithium-Americas.html