Lithium Americas finalizes DOE loan amendments

Lithium Americas (LAC) announced the finalization of the parties’ agreement on certain amendments to the company’s $2.23B loan from the U.S. Department of Energy for financing the construction of the processing facilities at Thacker Pass, which amendments will become effective following the satisfaction of mutually agreed and customary conditions that are anticipated to be satisfied in the following week. In addition, the company announced the completion of the previously announced at-the-market equity program. In furtherance of the company’s previously announced agreement-in-principle with General Motors (GM), its joint venture partner in Thacker Pass, and the DOE, the company and the DOE have agreed on the terms of an amendment to the DOE Loan, as follows: the DOE has agreed to defer $184M of scheduled debt service obligations under the DOE Loan from the first five years of loan repayment to the remaining years of loan maturity. The company will contribute an additional $120M to DOE Loan reserve accounts, to be funded within 12 months of the effective date of the amendments. In consideration for agreeing to the deferral of scheduled debt service as described above, the DOE will receive: a 5% equity stake in the company through warrants to purchase common shares of the company at an exercise price of $0.01 per share and a 5% economic stake in the JV through warrants to purchase non-voting, non-transferable equity interest of the JV with an exercise price of $0.01 per unit. The LAC warrants, the JV warrants and the JV units remain subject to customary conditions to be finalized through definitive documents and corporate approvals. In addition, the JV and GM have entered into an amendment to GM’s lithium offtake agreement with LN to provide additional support to the project. The amendment permits LN to enter into additional third-party offtake agreements for certain remaining production volumes not forecasted to be purchased by GM.