Mining royalty company Trident Royalties has announced that the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected the arguments of an appeal to overturn the approval of the Thacker Pass lithium project in Nevada, US.
A three-panel judge of the San Francisco-based appellate court has ruled that the US Bureau of Land Management that granted approval to the Thacker Pass project acted reasonably and in good faith.
Located in Humboldt County, the Thacker Pass lithium project is fully owned by Canadian mining company Lithium Americas.
The US lithium project is expected to have a production capacity of 80,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) of battery-quality lithium carbonate in two phases of 40,000tpa, respectively.
Phase 1 production at the Thacker Pass project is slated to begin in the second half of 2026.
Lithium Americas announced the start of construction at the Thacker Pass project in March 2023. The start of construction followed the receipt of notice to proceed with the lithium project from the Bureau of Land Management.
Trident Royalties has a 60% interest in gross revenue royalty over the entirety of the Thacker Pass project.
The mining royalty firm will maintain an equivalent of just under 1.05% net gross revenue royalty at the Thacker Pass, assuming Lithium Americas exercises the partial royalty buy-back of $13.2m attributable to the former.
Trident Royalties CEO Adam Davidson said: “It is reassuring to see such a decisive ruling on this matter, allowing work to continue unimpeded on site at Thacker Pass ahead of first production in H2 2026.
“This ruling has confirmed that the permitting process was conducted thoroughly and appropriately, and is firm validation for the development of Thacker Pass into one of the world’s largest lithium mines over the coming years.”
