By Jeffrey A. Newman Esq.
Met with China’s total restriction on the sale of rare earth minerals to the United States, the U.S. has purchased a stake in two Canadian critical mineral companies. The Department of Energy will take a five per cent equity stake in the miner, which is based in Vancouver. It will also take a five per cent stake in the Thacker Pass lithium mining project, a joint venture with General Motors. U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a statement that the deal with Lithium Americas “helps reduce our dependence on foreign adversaries for critical minerals by strengthening domestic supply chains and ensures better stewardship of American taxpayer dollars.”
Thacker Pass is considered crucial in reducing U.S. reliance on China for lithium, a critical material used to produce the high tech batteries used in cellphones, electric vehicles and renewable energy. Both Republicans and Democrats support the project and narrowing the production gap. China is the world’s largest lithium processor. Thacker will produce about 40,000 metric tons of batery quality lithium carbonate per year, which could power 800,000 EV’s.
Also, Lithium Americas said Wednesday that it reached a non-binding agreement in principle with the DOE to advance the first draw of $435 million US on the federal loan. The DOE has agreed to defer $182 million US of debt service over the first five years of the loan. The U.S. and Canada’s Lithium Americas seemed to be moving forward with the deal late last month, as both parties agreed on changes to an approximately $2.3 billion US federal loan that could allow the project to move forward to extract the silver-white metal used in electric vehicle batteries.
GM has pledged more than $900 million US to help develop Thacker Pass, which holds enough lithium to build one million electric vehicles annually.
Jeffrey Newman is a whistleblower lawyer and his lawfirm represents whistleblowers reporting violations of export controls, tariff evasion, healthcare cases and other kinds of WB cases. We represent individuals both in the United States and from other countries. Mr. Newman and his firm also represent physician whistleblowers nationside in healthcare fraud cases. Whistleblower laws in the U.S. allow individuals anywhere, with information about export control violations or tariff fraud to reveal the information as a whistleblower under The False Claims act or through the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Whistleblower Program. The Firm’s website is www.JeffNewmanLaw.com . Attorney Newman can be reached at Jeff@Jeffnewmanlaw.com or at 978-880-4758
