- [Narrator] Along the
Nevada/Oregon border sits the McDermitt Caldera, where hidden in the clay, is the US' largest deposit of lithium. And 1,700 miles away is
the Tamarack Project. Home to one of the country's only sources of high-grade nickel. - This is the highest grade rock I've ever held in my career. - [Narrator] The US is
now investing billions to mine these battery minerals and build up enough domestic supply to break its reliance on China, which currently dominates
global battery production. - We can't build a future that's made in America if we are ourselves are dependent
on China for the materials that power the products
of today and tomorrow. - [Narrator] Here's how
two projects are digging in despite the challenges, hoping to change the
battery metal supply chain. Right now, the supply
chain for these minerals spans the globe. Australia mines 48% of the world's lithium and Indonesia extracts
50% of global nickel. Once mined, a majority of
both are sent to China, along with other battery
metals for processing. Much of that material then remains there to be put into batteries. Today, China produces more than 85% of the world's batteries. - Any nation wants to have
control over its source of energy and control over its raw materials that go into national defense. And right now, we're
dependent on countries that potentially could be rivals. - There we go, it's now law.
(crowd cheering) - [Narrator] 2020s Inflation Reduction Act seeks to change that, with billions of dollars in subsidies meant to bring all of
this within US borders, both for the energy transition
and national security. The law includes a $7,500 tax credit for people who buy electric
vehicles with batteries containing minerals sourced
from these countries, but not these. - Battery makers and automakers are now working hard to comply and to get more products to qualify. - [Narrator] They're
even taking their money straight to the source. In General Motors case, that's
this 18,000 acre section of the McDermitt Caldera
called Thacker Pass. - The ultimate product
that comes out of there is 40,000 tons of lithium
carbonate every year. That's gonna be enough to put into about a million
General Motors Electric Vehicles every single year. - [Narrator] The car maker
committed $650 million towards the Thacker
Pass project last year, giving it exclusive rights to all of the lithium mined
here for up to 15 years, which Lithium Americas will
extract using a process other lithium mines don't, one the company has
been testing for years. - We're gonna take raw ore and we're gonna feed it into
these pieces of equipment. - [Narrator] This slurry is separated then leached with the sulfuric acid, all part of a process
that isolates the lithium - Through this circuit, what we're removing is magnesium sulfate, magnesium sulfate is bath salts. You could furnish all
the spas in the world with the magnesium sulfate
that we're removing - [Narrator] Until finally. - And then we end up with a
high purity lithium carbonate. (truck whizzing) - [Narrator] And up in Tamarack Minnesota. - If you zoom out, you
can see the intrusion. - [Narrator] Talon Metals has
been exploring, recording, and mapping this polymetallic deposit, mainly made up of nickel. - So these are the holes that we drill with our drill rigs to understand what's underneath our feet. And then this is the deposit. And so what we can do with this is essentially identify the areas that are valuable to extract. - [Narrator] Talon estimates there are 17 million metric tons
of nickel mineralization sitting within the deposit. - So the deposit is quite special, it's not the largest in
the world by any means, but it is very high grade. This piece is around
about about 9% nickel. And when you move this around, basically anything that flashes is the nickel mineralization. 1% is considered high grade, so 9%, we're significantly higher than what's considered high grade. - [Narrator] And some of this nickel already has a big-name buyer. - [Elon] Any mining companies out there, please mine more nickel. (laughs) - [Narrator] Two years after that call, Tesla committed to
purchasing 75,000 metric tons of Talon's future product, Enough nickel for an estimated 1.2 million Tesla Model Y EVs. Taken together, Tamarack's nickel and Thacker Passes' lithium would mean billions in savings
for Tesla and GM buyers, but these mines aren't open yet, and speed bumps are emerging. - It's been an awful 2024 for Tesla. - With respect to electric vehicles, prices are just too high. - [Narrator] EV sales growth has nearly stalled out in
the US in the past year, that slowdown has weighed
heavily on battery metal prices. Nickel is down 26% since early 2023. Lithium is down more than 80%, making mining projects
less economically viable. - It means that projects
are being delayed, it means that some projects
are being sidelined. - Lithium is by no means a rare resource, but getting it out of the ground is what's so challenging, and we've seen here in the US, that it's essentially impossible
to get a project permitted. - [Narrator] "Securing the permits needed to open a mine in the US can often take up to 10 years, three times more than other countries," according to the National
Mining Association, - [Tim] We've spent more than a decade getting to where we are today. - [Brian] The Tamarack deposit
was discovered in 2008. - [Narrator] Mining projects,
including Thacker Pass and Tamarack, have also faced opposition from environmental and local
Native American groups. Talon Metals even moved a planned nickel processing
facility out of the state. - Now for some people, that's not gonna be enough, but at least we hope that people feel that we have been listening, and that we've taken action
to do something about it as we plan the mine. - [Narrator] Talon hopes to
deliver nickel to Tesla in 2028. Lithium Americas is now fully permitted and will start production in 2027. Still, it's going to take
more than these initial plans to create a reliable
domestic mineral supply. - We have found one deposit, but we're finding mineralization in these other areas as well. I can definitely see Tamarack
growing in the future. - Our deposit is within an area that's the largest in the world, so expansion opportunities
there are quite good. (gentle music)
