The Financial Post reports in its Thursday, Oct. 2, edition that the U.S. government will acquire a 5-per-cent stake in Lithium Americas and its Thacker Pass project, the largest lithium deposit in the country, supporting the Canadian firm in its development. A Bloomberg dispatch to the Post reports that the company has also secured a $2.23-billion (U.S.) loan agreement with the Department of Energy. The plan marks the Trump administration's latest effort to speed development of a domestic supply chain to counter China's dominance over metals critical to defence, automaking and consumer electronics. In July, the U.S. Defense Department announced a $400-million (U.S.) equity investment in MP Materials Corp. to fund a major new plant making rare-earth magnets. Thacker Pass, being developed in a joint venture with General Motors, is forecast to become a major lithium source for a domestic industry that currently produces only small amounts of the battery metal. On Tuesday U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said: "It's in America's best interest to get that mine built. We're going to see a huge new lithium resource come on. In the next couple of years it will displace a massive amount of imported lithium."