Lithium Americas (TSX: LAC) surged roughly 80% after hours on Tuesday after the Trump administration is reportedly seeking an equity stake of up to 10% as part of a renegotiation of the Department of Energy’s $2.26 billion loan for the company’s Thacker Pass lithium project.
The prospective stake—described by two people familiar with the talks—would be obtained via no-cost warrants equal to 5%–10% of LAC’s common shares, offered by the company this week to close the loan restructuring and cover associated fees.
The equity request comes alongside revisions to the loan’s amortization schedule. According to the reporting, Lithium Americas proposed shifting when part of principal is repaid—without changing the overall repayment timeline or total interest owed to the Loan Programs Office.
The DOE loan carries a 24-year term with interest set based on US Treasury rates as tranches are drawn.
Control and offtake are central to the negotiations. General Motors, which invested $625 million last year for a 38% stake in the project, holds rights to purchase all lithium from Phase 1 and a portion from Phase 2 for 20 years. The administration is seeking a GM purchase guarantee as part of the revised package and, per one source, wants GM to relinquish control over parts of the project in favor of Washington.
Thacker Pass—approved at the end of Trump’s first term and whose loan was closed last year by Biden officials—is budgeted at $2.93 billion and is under construction with more than 600 contractors about 25 miles south of Nevada’s border with Oregon. First-phase output is expected at 40,000 metric tons per year of battery-quality lithium carbonate, enough for up to 800,000 EVs.
The White House framed the stake as aligning taxpayer protection with strategic supply goals.
“President Trump supports this project. He wants it to succeed and also be fair to taxpayers,” a White House official told Reuters. “But there’s no such thing as free money.”
Washington already has guardrails embedded in the original loan, including clauses allowing the government to take over the project in the event of major delays or cost overruns. The first loan draw—slated for earlier this month—was paused while terms are reassessed amid concerns over repayment capacity under low lithium prices attributed to Chinese overproduction, the sources said.
The policy approach would expand a growing list of government stakes in critical-materials and tech names, following actions involving Intel, MP Materials, and others. It also arrives as the US seeks to scale domestic lithium production beyond the 5,000 metric tons currently produced at Albemarle’s Nevada facility, with other American projects advancing from ioneer, Exxon Mobil, and Standard Lithium.
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