Federal grant reinstated for Tonopah Flats lithium refinery project

The federal government has reinstated a $115 million grant for American Battery Technology Co.’s Tonopah Flats lithium refinery, a move that makes the Nye County project materially more likely to move forward after months of uncertainty. The grant had been canceled for the same Tonopah Flats effort, and the reversal restores the broader award with the same funding and milestone terms, while giving the company an updated project schedule.

For Tonopah and the surrounding area, the decision matters because the refinery would sit at the center of one of the region’s biggest proposed industrial buildouts tied to critical minerals. The U.S. Department of Energy first selected American Battery Technology Co. in October 2022 for a five-year grant to support a commercial-scale demonstration plant producing battery-grade lithium hydroxide from unconventional Nevada sedimentary resources. The original plan called for an initial capacity of 5,000 tonnes of battery-grade lithium hydroxide a year.

The Tonopah Flats project is located near Tonopah, about 5 miles west of town, and includes 517 unpatented lode mining claims covering more than 10,340 acres administered by the Bureau of Land Management. Company materials describe the property as one of the largest identified critical-mineral lithium resources in the United States, a claim that underlines why federal officials have treated it as part of a broader push to rebuild domestic battery-materials supply chains.

The reinstatement also resets the local timeline. American Battery Technology Co. said the grant came back in its entirety, with no change to the funds awarded or the technical and commercial milestones, but with an updated contracted project schedule to reflect the time spent under review. That means the next steps now shift from grant status to execution: project scheduling, remaining approvals, and the pace at which the company can move toward construction and eventual commissioning.

That progression will be watched closely in Nye County because the project’s scale could affect roads, contractor demand, and the long-term industrial footprint around Tonopah. The Department of Energy has said its battery-materials grant program is meant to support domestic processing capacity, strengthen U.S. supply chains, and create jobs. For local officials and residents, the bigger question now is how much of that promise turns into on-the-ground activity at Tonopah Flats, and what tradeoffs come with a larger lithium economy taking root west of town.