Lithium Americas Corp
LAC
Materials
2
exclusion reasons
2 themes
Lithium Americas Corp is screened out under 2 exclusion reasons spanning 2 issue categories.
This page is part of our public exclusion list — a transparency tool that shows which companies we screen out and why. It is not investment advice, and it is not an accusation. It is a statement of values.
Lithium Americas Corp. is a Canadian mining corporation whose primary business is the extraction of lithium, a critical mineral used in electric vehicle batteries. The company’s flagship project is the Thacker Pass Lithium Mine in northern Nevada, which it is developing to supply battery-quality lithium carbonate for the North American critical minerals supply chain. This places the company’s core activity squarely within the extractive industries.
The Thacker Pass project has been the subject of significant controversy regarding its impact on Indigenous rights and the environment. In February 2025, a report found that the U.S. government’s decision to permit the mine violated Indigenous people's rights. While the company asserts the project “has the potential to significantly advance America's electrification efforts,” this promise of “green mining” contrasts with documented social and environmental impacts associated with the extractive process. The project exemplifies the tensions between the demand for critical minerals and the harms caused by non-fuel mining operations.
Lithium Americas Corp’s Thacker Pass project in Nevada, approved in 2021, involves the open-pit mining of lithium clay deposits. The project plan includes burying approximately 1,300 acres of public land under waste rock and tailings. In June 2023, a U.S. District Court judge in Reno concluded the federal Bureau of Land Management violated the law in its approval, citing insufficient analysis of the plan’s environmental impacts.
The mining process for lithium brine and clay deposits is water-intensive, posing documented risks to groundwater levels and quality in arid regions. Broader reporting on lithium mining in the Americas, including projects operated by related corporate entities in Peru, describes patterns of toxic residue release affecting water sources, deforestation, and habitat destruction. These impacts are frequently cited in environmental litigation and community opposition focused on ecological damage and water resource depletion.
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