Will DOE Funding Accelerate Lithium Americas' Thacker Pass Buildout?

Lithium Americas Corp. LAC recently reached a major milestone in the development of its Thacker Pass project and secured the first drawdown of $435 million from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (“DOE”) $2.23 billion guaranteed loan under the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program. The funding from DOE will support the construction of the project’s processing facilities in Humboldt County, NV.

The initial drawdown marks a significant boost to project certainty and financial stability, which will allow construction activities to advance at full speed. The on-site workforce continues to expand, with around 700 workers now engaged in various phases of development. Progress is visible across the site, including steel and concrete work, infrastructure installation and ongoing expansion of the Workforce Hub.

Engineering efforts are also well underway. As of Sept. 30, 2025, more than 80% of detailed engineering had been completed and the company aims to surpass 90% of design completion by the end of 2025. Achieving this level of design completion early in the construction phase helps to mitigate risks related to scheduling and project costs.

LAC’s Price Performance, Valuation & Estimates

Lithium Americas’ shares have gained 59.6% compared with the Zacks Mining - Miscellaneous industry’s growth of 18.7% year to date. LAC’s peers, BHP Group Limited BHP and TMC the metals company Inc. TMC, have gained 8.7% and 361.6%, respectively, in the same period.

 
From a valuation standpoint, Lithium Americas is trading at a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of negative 12.86X against the industry’s average of 15.47X. LAC is trading above the TMC’s P/E ratio and below the same of BHP. BHP and TMC are trading at 13.45X and negative 17.19X, respectively.

 
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for LAC’s 2025 and 2026 loss per share has widened 37 cents and 13 cents, respectively, in the past 30 days.
 

LAC carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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