Posted on 01/31/2023 1:21:47 PM PST by Red Badger
Jan. 31 (UPI) -- General Motors announced Tuesday it will make a $650 million equity investment into Lithium Americas to develop the Thacker Pass mine in Nevada to produce material needed for its electric vehicles.
GM is touting the news as the largest-ever investment by a carmaker to produce domestic lithium to make EV batteries. Lithium Americas, which is based in Vancouver, Canada, said it believes there is enough lithium in the mine to produce batteries for 1 million EVs annually.
As the market for electric cars grows, so have supply chain worries for lithium, the critical raw material needed for the batteries. According to Mining.com, Australia, Chile and China are the leading countries in producing lithium.
"GM has secured all the battery material we need to build more than 1 million EVs annually in North America in 2025 and our future production will increasingly draw from domestic resources like the site in Nevada we're developing with Lithium Americas," GM Chairwoman and CEO Mary Barra said in a statement.
"Direct sourcing critical EV raw materials and components from suppliers in North America and free-trade-agreement countries help make our supply chain more secure, helps us manage cell costs, and creates jobs."
The Thacker Pass mine received a Record of Decision in January 2021 from the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management, according to Lithium Americas. Construction is expected to start (BLM) and has all permits required to commence construction. Construction is expected to commence in 2023.
Thacker Pass is located about 60 miles northwest of Winnemucca, in Humboldt County in northern Nevada in an area that has the potential to expand.
"The agreement with GM is a major milestone in moving Thacker Pass toward production while setting a foundation for the separation of our U.S. and Argentine businesses," Lithium Americas President and CEO Jonathan Evans said in a statement.
"This relationship underscores our commitment to developing a sustainable domestic lithium supply chain for electric vehicles."
We have lithium left??? I thought the Clintons sold all of it to China.
And just like that, all the “environmentalists” are nowhete to be found....
Who wants to work in the lithium mines?!
Suddenly mining is okay now
For what it's worth, IMHO if EV's and solar weren't forced onto people and sold only with the free market, the demand is low enough that our country could make the rare-earth's needed. Including lithium and cobalt. Between that and the fossil fuels we can produce on our own, in a free energy market all Americans could get what we want energy-wise without kowtowing to Cheyna or Russia or any other country.
Except that the Dims want Americans kowtowing to Dims. You can see it with how the Dims restrict processing rare-earths that are needed for the EV and solar dreams the Dims claim is good for us.
I think Musk has a head start out there ....
Really, really dumb...why didn’t they play the Solyndra game and have the government dole out taxpayer money for such an endeavor? Take the money and run?
And after an acceptable period of time, China will make an offer to Lithium Americas that will be too good to pass up andXChina will have their next move to cornering the heavy metals market. Facilitated by Creepy Joe, no doubt.
Oh goody. More toxic leaching ponds. 🤡
Indentured servants. Chamber of Commerce is matching up illegals that owe the cartels with companies that want to buy the contracts. So some contracts will be bought for 7 years of indentured servitude in the lithium mines to pay off the owners of the contracts ... actually they are probably the lucky ones, think of the child and adult sex slaves contracts?Under the agreement with the DHS, run-aways can returned from Red States by the DHS or FBI. Bounties can be offered to encourage people to turn the run-aways in. Bounties paid will be added to their debt.
That was my first thought as well - illegals.
The Sierra Club will have it tied up in the courts for decades, saving the purple-breasted snail fish, or some such.
GM will never see a profit on the huge capital investments they made with EVs. Its a niche market and most people don’t want them. The company will go bankrupt by 2030.
“Who wants to work in the lithium mines?!”
People who operate the giant machinery used in open pit mines.
https://www.lithiumamericas.com/usa/thacker-pass/
Thacker Pass received a Record of Decision in January 2021 from the US Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and has all permits required to commence construction. Construction is expected to commence in 2023.
Thacker Pass is situated at the southern end of the McDermitt Caldera, approximately 100 km northwest of Winnemucca, in Humboldt County, northern Nevada.
The Project has been designed to avoid environmentally sensitive and rugged terrain. The flat and expansive terrain allows for a very compact footprint and allows for future potential expansions.
The Thacker Pass operation will include a co-located sulfuric acid plant that will convert molten sulfur into sulfuric acid. This process produces steam, which we will use to generate carbon-free power for the processing facilities. Co-locating a sulfuric acid plant reduces the number of trucks on the road, as each ton of sulfur can create three tons of sulfuric acid, and sulfur is much safer to transport.
-—leachin ponds? Well why didn’t you say so? Right across the border in Oregon is a huge gold deposit in Grassy mountain. If the lithium guys get approval so will the gold diggers. Price of gold being what it is I expect there will be a push to start leaching.
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