Lithium Americas shares up a third as U.S. government takes 5% stake in small miner

The U.S. government has agreed to acquire a stake in Lithium Americas, the Canadian company developing the country’s largest lithium deposit at Thacker Pass in Nevada. Lithium is a critical raw material for EV batteries. On the news, the company’s shares surged by a third in after-hours trading yesterday, September 30, and have maintained the gains in premarket trading so far this morning.

The U.S. will take a 5% equity stake in Lithium Americas, whose shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange, as well as a 5% stake in the Thacker Pass project, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in an interview with Bloomberg Television yesterday.

“It’s in America’s best interest to get that mine built,” Wright said. “We’re going to see a huge new lithium resource come on. In the next couple of years it will displace a massive amount of imported lithium.”

Shares of Lithium Americas jumped by a third to $7.65 per share in after-hours trading yesterday. During the main session, the stock fell 0.5% to $5.71 per share. In premarket trading this morning, it has held on to the gains.

The Thacker Pass project, which Lithium Americas is developing together with General Motors, is expected to become a major source of lithium for the U.S. battery industry, Bloomberg reports. The U.S. currently produces only small amounts of the metal.

To finance the project, the partners secured a $2.3 billion loan from the Department of Energy under the Biden administration. The new Trump administration sought to revise the loan terms, including by requiring external capital to protect taxpayers, Bloomberg noted. Lithium Americas and GM subsequently approached the White House to restructure the loan. In exchange, the U.S. expects to receive an equity stake in Lithium Americas, Barron’s reported last week, causing the company’s shares to soar and nearly double in value.

The U.S. investment underscores the Trump administration’s push to accelerate development of a domestic critical-minerals supply chain and reduce reliance on China, which dominates global markets for metals vital to defense, automaking, and consumer electronics, Bloomberg added.

In July, the Department of Defense announced a $400 million equity investment in MP Materials, owner of the only operating rare earth mine in the U.S. The government later secured a 10% stake in Intel by converting a grant issued during the Biden administration into equity.

The AI translation of this story was reviewed by a human editor.