Mr. Jonathan Evans reports

LITHIUM AMERICAS PROVIDES A PROJECT UPDATE AND 2026 CAPEX GUIDANCE FOR THACKER PASS

Lithium Americas Corp. has provided a project update for the year ended Dec. 31, 2025, 2026 capital expenditure (capex) guidance and 2026 project development milestones for its Thacker Pass project in Humboldt county, Nevada.

"Two thousand twenty-five was a pivotal year for Lithium Americas and the Thacker Pass project with phase 1 construction well under way," said Jonathan Evans, president and chief executive officer of Lithium Americas. "Safety remains our top priority, processing facilities are rising and critical equipment and materials are arriving daily. As planned, we expect to reach peak construction employment of roughly 1,800 skilled craftspeople by year-end. Lithium market conditions are strengthening just as the project prepares to come online in late 2027, with full ramp-up through 2028."

Mr. Evans added: "Thacker Pass represents a unique opportunity to build a secure, resilient North American lithium supply chain. We value our partnership with the federal government and the support of local, state and federal leaders who share our commitment to strengthening America's energy future."

Q4 2025 project and construction highlights

The company continues to progress major construction at Thacker Pass phase 1. Construction milestones achieved in Q4 2025 include:

• As of Dec. 31, 2025, detailed engineering design complete achieved 93 per cent, while procurement was 60 per cent complete.
• At the end of December, 2025, there were approximately 950 personnel on site at Thacker Pass, including approximately 740 manual craft and 210 additional site workers. The number of personnel is expected to increase to approximately 1,800 at peak construction in 2026.
• In 2025, 1.69 million work hours were completed at Thacker Pass without a serious injury or lost-time incident, and the total recordable incident frequency rate was 0.21.
• Foundation, rebar and concrete work continue at multiple facilities throughout the processing plant, including the filter building, the magnesium sulphate building and warehouse facilities.
• Multiple facilities at the Thacker Pass processing plant also progressed structural steel installation, including the filter building, magnesium sulphate building and the liquid sulphur tanks.
• The installation of certain long lead equipment commenced in Q4 2025.
• Active hydroseeding of disturbed areas across the site using native seeds was performed.
• In September, 2025, the work force hub (WFH) became partially operational and welcomed its first residents. As of Feb. 13, 2026, there were nearly 700 residents at the WFH. Occupancy at the WFH is expected to align with the hiring and ramp-up of construction workers.

The company is growing its operations and business readiness (OBR) team to derisk the transition from the engineering, procurement and construction phases of Thacker Pass through commissioning, ramp-up and into production, and maintenance of the greenfield mining and chemical facility.

• As of Dec. 31, 2025, the OBR team had 25 employees. Hiring additional OBR team members is expected to ramp up throughout 2026 in preparation for precommissioning and process commissioning in late 2026 and throughout 2027.
• Throughout 2025, the following key roles were filled: site operations director, lithium carbonate plant manager, sulphuric acid plant manager, maintenance manager, supply chain manager, training manager and process superintendent.
• The OBR team is currently preparing safety plans, operating procedures, multidisciplinary training programs, emergency response training and other programs, which are being finalized and implemented.
• The OBR team continues to conduct factory acceptance tests of key equipment and processes, while working with these vendors to learn best practices from their customers' existing operations.

2026 capital expenditure guidance

The company is targeting a capex range of $1.3-billion to $1.6-billion for Thacker Pass phase 1 for fiscal year 2026, as shown in the attached table.

2026 capex guidance notes:

1. Thacker Pass phase 1 construction costs do not include $8.0-million of community contributions that are required to be expensed under United States GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles), though these were included in the $2.93-billion capex estimate per the company's technical report entitled "NI 43-101 Technical Report on the Thacker Pass Project Humboldt County, Nevada, USA," effective Dec. 31, 2024.
2. Thacker Pass phase 1 construction costs include estimated tariff exposure for equipment and construction material sourced from Canada, China, India, United Arab Emirates, Turkey and the European Union. The company has been working toward limiting the effect of any potential tariffs on the company's construction supply chain, with approximately 75 per cent of the total capital project cost structure related to labour, contractors and other services not expected to be directly affected by any potential tariffs. The company continues to monitor closely potential tariff exposure; however, changes in tariffs and trade restrictions can be announced with little or no advance notice. The estimates provided are based on known information as of the date of this news release.
3. Other capitalized development costs are required to be capitalized under U.S. GAAP, though these were not included in $2.93-billion capex estimate per the company's technical report.

Fiscal year 2025 capex spend is expected to be disclosed in the company's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended Dec. 31, 2025, which is expected to be filed on March 19, 2026.

Expected 2026 development milestones

The company continues to target mechanical completion of the Thacker Pass phase 1 processing plant in late 2027. Following are expected development milestones for 2026:

• Major long-lead equipment and a substantial amount of other equipment and construction materials are expected to be delivered to either Thacker Pass or the fabrication yard in Winnemucca throughout the first half of 2026, including the steam turbine generator, sulphuric acid plant stacks and cold interpass heat exchanger.
• In early January, 2026, the first of nearly 100 completed pipe rack modules were delivered to site. They were fabricated offsite to reduce labour hours and facilitate enhanced safety performance. Once delivered to site, the interlocking modules (with pipe, cable trays already installed) will be placed and joined together at the processing plant. The remaining pipe rack modules are expected to be delivered to site by mid-year.
• The first cable pulls on the module pipe racks are targeted to commence in spring 2026.
• Commissioning of the high voltage pwoer line is targeted to commence in Q2 2026.
• Given the advanced level of detailed engineering, the company is expected to begin a definitive capital estimate in the first half of 2026. Advanced levels of engineering and procurement will enable the team to estimate quantities and materials with higher confidence. Further assessment of labour availability and productivity rates is expected to occur by the fourth quarter of 2026.
• All main concrete required at site is expected to be completed in Q3 2026.
• Early commissioning of the individual plants is expected to commence in Q4 2026.
• As part of the project, the company is upgrading six regional substations and switching stations to enhance reliability for grid power from the local electric utility cooperative. This work is expected to be completed to help energize the project in Q4 2026.

About Lithium Americas Corp.

Lithium Americas is building Thacker Pass located in Humboldt county in Northern Nevada. Phase 1 is designed for nominal production capacity of 40,000 tonnes per year of battery-quality lithium carbonate and mechanical completion is targeted for late 2027. Thacker Pass hosts the largest known measured lithium resource (measured and indicated) and reserve (proven and probable) in the world and is owned by a joint venture (JV) between Lithium Americas (holding a 62-per-cent interest), and General Motors Holdings LLC (GM) (holding a 38-per-cent interest). Project financing for phase 1 includes a $2.23-billion loan from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and strategic investments from GM and Orion Resource Partners LP. The DOE holds company warrants to purchase common shares of the company for a 5-per-cent equity stake and JV warrants to purchase a 5-per-cent non-voting, non-transferable equity interest in the JV. Lithium Americas' shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and New York Stock Exchange under the symbol LAC.

Technical information

The scientific and technical information in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Rene LeBlanc, PhD, SME, vice-president, commercial and product strategy, of the company, and a qualified person as defined under National Instrument 43-101 and Subpart 1300 of Regulation S-K under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended.

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