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Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot | You are referring to the Thacker Pass mine that Lithium Americas is developing. It's under construction now after finally getting through all the permitting and inevitable court cases trying to stop it. There was a lot of BS that went on with people claiming it was the site of a massacre in the 1800's, one idiot rancher who claimed it would dry up some springs that go dry anyway, partially because of his own ranch pumping water from the same aquifer. I like the high desert, but if a guy is going to mine it, it's about as good of a place as any. Not to mention it can be done in a country that has good safety laws and a restoration program.
In reality it's a great place for a mine. Northern Nevada is full of giant open pit gold and copper mines. Mostly gold. So the know how and supporting infrastructure is already there. 300 ton haul trucks are pretty common in that area. These mines are huge, some of them are moving hundreds of thousands of tons of waste rock and ore every day. I've been across Thacker "Pass" lots of times. "Pass" makes you think it's some scenic mountain cleft full of pine trees and wildflowers. In reality it's a dry sagebrush flat where the mine is. The lithium is there in great quantities because it was the site of a caldera from the early Yellowstone hot spots. Without getting into too much detail, there was sediment deposited in the ancient caldera that contained a fair amount of lithium. They are going to process the sediment with sulfuric acid to extract the lithium.
The process is interesting, but the biggest thing is it's the first lithium mine using a dry extraction method. Other lithium mines pump brine from aquifers containing lithium, and evaporate the brine in large evaporation ponds. It takes a lot of water, and nearly all groundwater basins in Nevada are already fully adjudicated and fully appropriated. So there's no way to get permitted for more extraction without buying water rights from someone else. Usually a ranch that has old water rights. Which is why many of the big ranches near open pit mines in Nevada are owned by the mining companies.
What GM did was invest in the mine. Obviously it takes a lot of money to construct everything, and buy the equipment needed to dig a pit a mile across and half a mile wide. I think they are planning to mine several hundred feet deep, all open pit. So GM invested in it with the idea they are first in line to have access to a good source of lithium for their electric car division. Lithium Americas, the owner of the mine is actually a Canadian company. Which for some reason is very common in that area, most of the large gold mines in Nevada are also owned by Canadian companies. Lithium Americas is a publicly traded company, you can own part of it yourself. I had Lithium Americas stock for a long time. I made good money on it but dumped it too soon as I didn't think they'd get through the permitting process and the bogus Indian tribe that was suing to stop it. I have no idea if Chinese entities are investing in it, but it wouldn't surprise me. | |
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GM/ Lithium/Nevada/China
