Feb. 1, 2023–General Motors has announced a deal with Lithium Americas Corp to invest $650 million into the company toward the construction of Nevada's Thacker Pass lithium mining project. Thacker Pass would hold enough of the battery metal needed to create 1 million electric vehicles annually, Reuters reports.
The lithium would be taken from a large clay deposit, something that’s “never been done before at commercial scale.” Lithium Americas plans to implement “a plant to produce 3,000 tonnes per day of sulfuric acid” to remove lithium from the clay.
GM has agreed to buy all of the lithium extracted from Thacker Pass when it opens in 2026, but the site faces some potential issues.
Lithium Americas is currently involved in a U.S. court case examining the circumstances under which the mines were approved. A judge had said she plans to rule on the case “in the next couple of months.”
Though Lithium Americas Chief Executive Jon Evans regarded the chances of losing the case as “extremely low,” the plaintiff in the case, John Hadder of Great Basin Resource Watch, believes GM should reexamine its involvement.
“If I were GM, I would be asking some hard questions about how the company can remedy the issues at Thacker Pass,” Hadder said.
