Lithium Americas has officially planted their roots with the grand opening of their Winnemucca office on Jan. 18.
The Humboldt County community gathered for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the opening of the new office, constructed by Big G Construction and owned by Javier Rivera, which has space for 15 people and can be expanded to accommodate 25 to 30 people.
“We’re proud to have a growing presence in Winnemucca and Humboldt County,” said Hugh Broadhurst, Lithium Americas General Manager. “The Thacker Pass project is founded on a decade of feedback through community engagement. We’re fortunate to have exceptional support from the community and couldn’t make the progress we have without partners like the Humboldt County Commission, the City of Winnemucca, Sawtooth, our mining partner, Bechtel, our construction partner, the Humboldt County Chamber of Commerce, the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office, the Winnemucca Police Department, the Bureau of Land Management, the Fort McDermitt Tribe, the Humboldt County School District, Great Basin College, Humboldt County Memorial Hospital, and many other businesses and neighbors across this wonderful community that we now call home.”
Making a positive impact on the communities where Lithium Americas employees work and live is one of our main priorities. The Thacker Pass project is currently in the construction phase, ramping up from early-works to major earthworks in preparation for heavy construction. At peak construction the project will employ up to 2,000 workers and will generate positive economic benefits for the Humboldt County region.
According to a socioeconomic analysis completed by the University of Nevada, Reno and submitted as part of the Environmental Impact Study:
• In Humboldt County, Phase 1 & 2 construction is estimated to generate approximately $725 million of economic activity annually. Once fully operational, the economic impact is estimated at approximately $2 billion, annually.
• In the state of Nevada, it’s expected that every $1 the Company invests on Phase 1 and 2 capital construction will generate an additional 76 cents of spending, and every direct job created during construction will generate an additional six jobs.
During the ribbon cutting, Broadhurst also shared that Lithium Americas construction crews logged more than 138,000 work-hours without a lost time incident— what the company said is a testament to the dedication of every employee to working safely. “The Lithium Technical Development Center in Reno was also recently awarded the ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management Systems certification, which is a globally recognized standard, demonstrating that we are serious about our commitment to quality in the development of lithium products,” said officials. The company’s temporary housing complex in Winnemucca called the Workforce Hub is under construction, with units arriving daily and the Company has secured a lease for the Transloading Terminal land west of Winnemucca.