DoD awards nearly $12M for lithium processing, production

On Monday, the U.S. Department of Defense said it had awarded $11.8 million to Lithium Nevada Corporation to accelerate the extraction and processing of lithium carbonate.

The award, made via the Defense Production Act Investment office, directly supports the 2024 National Defense Industrial Strategy’s objective to expand support for the domestic production of critical minerals, officials said.

“It is critical that we shore up reliable and sustainable domestic supplies of strategic materials, like lithium carbonate, that are necessary for the production of large-capacity batteries,” said Dr. Laura Taylor-Kale, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Base Policy. “This award helps do just that, facilitating the acceleration and expansion of Lithium Nevada’s existing capabilities to meet growing demand.”

Using Defense Production Act (DPA) Title III funds appropriated by the Inflation Reduction Act, the award will allow Lithium Nevada to upgrade infrastructure at its lithium mine in McDermitt Caldera in Humboldt County, Nevada. The upgrades will provide the company with the ability to test, demonstrate, accelerate and scale up lithium carbonate extraction processes and to produce commercial-scale levels of battery-grade lithium carbonate. The upgrades will help the company meet the U.S. demand for large-capacity lithium batteries – critical components in many DoD systems.

The award is the latest DPAI program award issued in 2024. All told, the 29 program awards total up to $418 million. The program is overseen by the Manufacturing Capability Expansion and Investment Prioritization (MCEIP) directorate in the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Base Resilience.