The US government is set to lend $1 billion to finance the massive Ticker Pass lithium deposit in the Nevada desert.

Bloomberg reports the U.S. Department of Energy will likely agree to the massive loan to help resource the massive EV battery market.

The loan, if granted, would be the largest ever granted by the US Energy Department’s Loan Programs Office.

The money for the deal would be drawn from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. which seeks to decarbonise the US economy significantly by the 2030s.

The Biden administration and Lithium Americas Corp. are negotiating the terms of an agreement that would fund more than half of the cost of the Thacker Pass mine in Nevada, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information.

Lithium Americas’ stock surged as much as 9.5% on Friday. The Energy Department said it doesn’t comment on loan applications. Vancouver-based Lithium Americas didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, Bloomberg said.

Thicker Pass may contain some 40 million tons of lithium, according to US Geological Survey estimates. 

According to Popular Mechanics, the deposit is the biggest known lithium resource in the world and would be key to the next phase of human industrialisation. 

However, lithium supply is still not enough to match the coming demand.

“The entire estimated (lithium) supply on planet Earth could power batteries for as few as about 2.5 billion electric vehicles without needing to recycle (or many more if the cars are on the smaller side). Humans are expected to hit two billion cars and 790 million trucks worldwide by 2040, so the lithium issue is a dire one,” a recent report said.