Biden administration approves $700 million conditional loan to Nevada lithium mine

This week, the Biden administration gave its support to the proposed second US lithium mine. An It was discovered by , the Department of Energy said it would provide mining company Ioneer with a conditional loan valued at up to $700 million to develop the Rhyolite Ridge Lithium-Boron Project in Nevada’s Esmeralda County. The mine will produce enough lithium to power approximately 370,000 electric cars annually once it is operational. Ioneer already has supply agreements with automakers like Ford and Toyota, though the project likely won’t start producing lithium until 2026.

The Biden administration made the funding available through the Energy Department’s . Ioneer must apply for all necessary permits from the appropriate federal and state agencies in order to obtain the money. The has come out against the project due to the risks it poses to a species of endangered wildflower in the area known as Tiehm’s buckwheat. For the same reason, the US Interior Department has yet not to approve the project. The Department of Energy stated that Ioneer had revised its plans to locate the site to avoid any direct impacts on the plant. However, it’s worth noting lithium mining requires You can do it.

However, lithium is vital to many technologies required to make the world zero-emissions. What’s more, lithium supply is expected to fall short of global demand by 2030. This gap will make it difficult to achieve the Biden administration’s goal of making electric cars half of all US automobile sales by the end the decade.