Lithium Americas (LAC) Provides an Update on GM Investment

Lithium Americas Corp. (NYSE: LAC) announces the Company and General Motors Holdings LLC (“GM”) have agreed to extend the outside date for the second tranche subscription agreement until the end of the year. Along with the extension, GM has reaffirmed its intention to complete the additional $330 million investment to support development of Thacker Pass, which is the largest known Measured and Indicated lithium resource in North America.

“Our relationship with GM has been built on collaboration and a mutual goal to develop a robust domestic lithium supply chain,” said Jonathan Evans, President and CEO of Lithium Americas. “We are fortunate to have GM’s partnership as we finalize the DOE Loan and GM investment prior to making the final investment decision later this year.”

During this time, the parties will explore alternative structures for GM’s additional investment in a mutually beneficial manner. As such, the Company has agreed to forbear making a unilateral election to close the second tranche investment until December 20, 2024, to provide time for such discussions to take place. GM’s investment is subject to the conditions precedent set forth in the second tranche subscription agreement, including the execution of the loan agreement for the $2.26 billion loan from the U.S. Department of Energy (“DOE”) under the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (“ATVM”) Loan Program for which the DOE provided a conditional commitment (the “DOE Loan”). The unilateral election of the Company to close the second tranche investment after December 20, 2024, must be accompanied by the grant to GM of additional rights related to Phase 21 of Thacker Pass. The Company continues to work closely with the DOE and expects to close the DOE Loan and additional GM investment by the end of the year.

BACKGROUND

On January 30, 2023, Old LAC2 entered into a purchase agreement with GM, pursuant to which GM agreed to make a $650 million equity investment (the “Transaction”), the proceeds of which are to be used for the construction and development of Thacker Pass. The Transaction is comprised of two tranches, a first tranche investment of $320 million (the “Tranche 1 Investment”) and a second tranche investment of up to $330 million (the “Tranche 2 Investment”). The Tranche 1 Investment closed on February 16, 2023. On October 3, 2023, pursuant to the Separation, the full amount of the remaining unspent proceeds of the Tranche 1 Investment were included in the net assets distributed by Old LAC to the Company.

As the Separation was completed before the closing of the Tranche 2 Investment, on October 3, 2023, the agreement for the Tranche 2 Investment in Old LAC was terminated and replaced by a corresponding subscription agreement between GM and the Company whereby the proceeds of the Tranche 2 Investment will be received by the Company.

1 Phase 2 is the second phase of production at Thacker Pass, targeting an additional 40,000 tonnes per annum (“tpa”) of battery-grade lithium carbonate, for total production capacity of 80,000 tpa.
2 Old LAC is now named Lithium Americas (Argentina) Corp., pursuant to a separation transaction that was undertaken on October 3, 2023 (the “Separation”), when the Company acquired ownership of Old LAC’s North American business assets and investments.

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