Construction is underway at Thacker Pass, Nevada, where a lithium processing facility is being built at an open pit mine in the northern region of the state. The mine owners claim that this plant will soon yield essential materials for electric vehicle batteries, which aligns with the climate change agenda of the Biden administration.
Workers at the 6,000-acre mine site known as Thacker Pass, located about 200 miles northeast of Reno, recently started work on the processing plant that is the first step in a contested $2.3 billion, 40-year mining program.
Reporters visiting the mine site owned by Lithium Nevada Corp witnessed the presence of large mining excavators and trucks, which were actively removing a layer of topsoil. This topsoil will be utilized in the future to restore the mine area once the extraction process is complete.
Water trucks filled with water from recently constructed ponds moved slowly through the region, dispersing water onto the ground in an attempt to minimize the dust clouds generated by the lithium-rich fine-powder soil.
Jonathan Evans, the president of Lithium Americas Corp., the parent company based in Vancouver, Canada, announced that all necessary federal and state permits have been obtained and production has commenced.
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The company claims that the mine contains approximately 16.1 million metric tons of lithium, which they refer to as “made-in-America”. This lithium is intended for use in electric vehicle (EV) batteries. This is significant because American producers currently rely heavily on foreign sources, such as China’s Communist regime, for their production needs.
Currently most lithium comes from Chile, Australia and China, and Beijing leads the world in processing of lithium into material that eventually is used to produce lithium-ion battery packs for cars.
The lithium processing facility in Nevada will be one of the limited number of plants in the United States with the ability to manufacture lithium of high quality for batteries. The mining process involves transferring clay deposits from the open pit to the processing facility, where the ore is filtered and treated using sulfuric acid to create lithium carbonate.
The mine exclusively generates lithium carbonate, which is subsequently transported to another location and utilized as a precursor for manufacturing metal sheets within battery cells. These cells are then employed in the production of battery packs, typically in Asia.
The demand for lithium ion batteries is increasing due to the need for energy storage in electric vehicles, power-generating wind turbines, and solar panels. This surge in demand is a result of the growing emphasis on green energy, leading to a worldwide search for additional lithium resources.
In addition to Nevada, lithium production is being considered in California, Oregon, Tennessee, Arkansas and North Carolina.
According to a report by Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, analysts predict that the demand for lithium will rise to approximately 1 million metric tons per year by 2040. This represents a significant increase of eight times the global production in 2022.
In July, Lithium Americas made the announcement of its plan to split into two separate entities: a newly established Lithium Americas based in the United States, and Lithium Argentina.
The deal will end the new U.S. company’s involvement with the Chinese lithium company called GFL International Co. Ltd., known as Ganfeng, which has a joint venture in Argentina and will remain an investor in Lithium Argentina. The split is expected to take place next month.
Critics of the Thacker Pass project expressed opposition due to Chinese participation in Lithium Americas.
Last year, Sen. Tom Cotton sent a letter to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm stating that no department funds should be used for the Nevada lithium mine if the mine provides any benefit to the ruling Chinese Communist Party. The Arkansas Republican raised concerns about Lithium Americas relationship with Ganfeng with the party.
Lithium Nevada contends that Thacker Pass is now 100% U.S.-owned, with no foreign involvement. The impending split in companies will also break the American mining company from having any supply chain link to China, and the project has attracted major U.S. corporate support.
In February, General Motors revealed its plan to invest $650 million in the lithium mine to bolster its EV product range. The remaining portion of the investment will be made once Lithium Americas separates from the Chinese-affiliated Argentine company, as stated by GM.
The Energy Department is also in the process of providing a loan for the mine construction that could pay up to 75% of early costs. The loan is being processed and is part of the department’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program, a fund set up by Mr. Biden’s 2021 infrastructure law.
All prominent American automobile manufacturers have shown interest in purchasing lithium from the mine for their electric vehicles. Nevertheless, General Motors will be the exclusive recipient of the initial lithium output from Thacker Pass.
Long legal battle
The construction of the plant started a few weeks ago after a prolonged legal dispute initiated by individuals who oppose mining activities. This legal conflict was led by a small faction of extreme environmentalists and certain American Indian organizations.
The self-described revolutionary political group Deep Green Resistance, and two of its members, Max Wilbert and Will Falk, have been leading the anti-mine legal action. The two activists camped out at the mine site for over a month back in 2021.
Deep Green Resistance, according to its website, is a Marxist group that advocates “a world without industrial civilization” that must be reached by “coordinated dismantling of industrial infrastructure.” The organization describes itself as “proudly Luddite in character” and believes humans do not need electricity.
The activists recruited individuals from various American Indian organizations in the region, such as those from the Fort McDermitt reservation located north of the mine, as well as the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony.
Certain individuals from the Indian community who are against the mining project argue that it will disrupt a holy site where a tragic event involving the Paiute people occurred in 1865. Nevertheless, experts in archaeology who conducted an investigation of the mining site concluded that the said massacre did not happen there. They discovered that the unfortunate demise of 30 Paiutes actually occurred over five miles away from the designated mining area.
According to a local Indian leader, the evidence from the massacre indicates that the killings might not have been committed by U.S. soldiers, but rather by a competing tribe.
Lithium Nevada plans to construct a day-care facility on the McDermitt reservation, as well as an elementary school near the mine site in Orovada. According to officials, the construction of the mine will create numerous job opportunities for the local community.
However, there are still ongoing legal disputes. Mr. Falk, an activist and lawyer who has represented various Indian cases against the mine, claimed that the authorities at the federal level did not properly locate the site of the massacre within the mine area prior to granting the mining permit.
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In May, demonstrators in India set up a teepee on the route of a pipeline that was being constructed to transport water from a nearby source to the mining site.
The mine has sparked a debate that has placed the Biden administration in a difficult position regarding their two main objectives: combating climate change and addressing past injustices, particularly those affecting minority and marginalized communities.
Mr. Biden has announced he wants 50% of all new vehicle sales to be for electric cars by 2030. Simultaneously, however, the administration has called for addressing past grievances of American Indians.
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland stated earlier this year in Idaho that ancestral homelands’ management had historically excluded tribes for centuries.
She stated that the administration is actively working to provide tribes with the chance to express their opinions before making decisions that affect their communities, as their voices, viewpoint, and expertise deserve recognition.
Ms. Haaland has also expressed that the “climate crisis” represents the most significant obstacle we face in our lifetime.
The Energy Department plans to allocate $2.8 billion from the recent infrastructure law towards supporting domestic initiatives. This includes a project aimed at producing sufficient battery-grade lithium to meet the annual demand of approximately 2 million electric vehicles.
Boosting domestic production
The objective of the Thacker Pass mine is to enhance the availability of battery material within the country. Once it is operating at full capacity, it will facilitate the production of approximately 1 million electric vehicles annually. In 2026, the Nevada mine will commence the extraction of battery-grade lithium by utilizing extensive excavators to dig up to 400 feet beneath the surface.
Several lawsuits failed to halt the mine, which is located on federal Bureau of Land Management land. The BLM approved a permit for mine in February 2021, setting in motion a series of legal challenges and a two-year bureaucratic process to obtain the six federal and state permits needed before construction could commence.
In September 2021, the federal government granted approval for a permit after Lithium America submitted a plan for treating cultural historic properties. This permit was issued despite two injunctions being dismissed by the courts. Additionally, the government authorized the company to relocate any eagle nests that might be found on the mining site.
The state government of Nevada granted three additional permits concerning procedures for maintaining air quality, controlling water pollution, and transferring water rights. Nevada also gave its approval for a permit regarding mine reclamation.
In July, the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in California denied environmental groups’ attempts to reverse the approval given by federal land managers for a portion of the mine project, marking a significant milestone in the ongoing legal dispute.
One remaining lawsuit is a joint legal effort by the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony, Summit Lake Paiute Tribe and the Burns Paiute Tribe to have the mine declared protected land under the National Register of Historic places.
In 1975, Chevron, an oil company, initially found lithium at the mine while exploring for subterranean uranium deposits.
The lithium found at the mine is situated on a caldera, which is the aftermath of a colossal volcanic eruption that occurred 16 million years ago. Previously, the caldera used to be a lake. Over time, water from the lake seeped through surrounding rocks and extracted lithium, which then accumulated in the basin of the caldera after the lake evaporated many centuries ago.
Science magazine, in a recent study of Thacker Pass, described the mine as a deposit of extremely high-grade lithium that is more than double the size of similar volcanic sedimentary lithium deposits worldwide. It ranks as one of the largest overall lithium production sites in the world, the magazine reported Aug. 30 in a study sponsored by Lithium Americas.
The mine will only extract a fraction of the lithium from an expansive region that stretches over 30 miles towards the southern part of Oregon.
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