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Projects

Thacker Pass Phase I

Strengthening Energy Independence in the United States

In the high desert of north-central Nevada lies the largest-measured lithium deposit in the world. Volcanic activity 17 million years ago, and geologic activity since then, have concentrated the lithium in clay near the surface at a location just south of the Oregon border called Thacker Pass. 

Lithium is a critical ingredient in all major electric vehicle battery technologies, but demand for lithium will almost quadruple and eclipse worldwide production by 2030.   

A joint venture of Lithium Americas and General Motors is building a lithium mine and large-scale processing facility at Thacker Pass. With the completion of Phase I, Thacker Pass will singlehandedly produce more than eight times the current U.S. output of lithium carbonate for electric vehicle batteries – all mined and processed on site. 

The Bechtel Difference

Bechtel will help make that a reality as the engineering, procurement, and construction management contractor, while also self-performing certain construction activities.  

Bechtel will manage the construction the 642-acre plant complex with 600,000 square feet of processing plant buildings, administrative buildings, roads, utilities, and associated infrastructure. We will partner with dozens of subcontractors, suppliers, and vendors, many of them in Nevada, to complete the job.

Bechtel will leverage its decades of construction experience in critical mineral mining facilities and its relationships in the global supply chain to help the project apply known technologies in a first-of-a-kind way for the clay ore in the region.  

Watch this video to see how:

Sustainability at the Forefront 

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Construction Jobs Created

Sudden Growth in a Rural Region 

Adding nearly 2,000 construction jobs to this mostly rural area will produce many positive impacts but it also could be disruptive for the host community.  

The Thacker Pass Workforce Hub is a dedicated worker accommodations complex that will provide housing, food, and medical services during project construction while helping minimize impacts to the community and its existing infrastructure. 

Promoting Energy Independence 

The U.S. still relies heavily on outside sources for mining and refining lithium. Most lithium comes from Australia, China, and South America but — critically — most of it is refined in China.  

Ensuring an abundant and reliable capability is a national imperative. In 2024, the U.S. Department of Energy provided Lithium Americas a $2.26 billion loan to support the project. 

For the first time, the U.S. will be able to choose a completely domestic supply chain for electric vehicle batteries. Thacker Pass will also play a vital role in closing the circle of Nevada’s “Lithium Loop,” a cycle that extends from mining to producing and then recycling lithium batteries. 

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