Century Lithium Corp. (TSXV: LCE, OTCQX: CYDVF, Frankfurt: C1Z) has marked a notable milestone for its 100% owned Angel Island lithium project in Esmeralda County, Nevada. The project recently earned a spot on the Federal Permitting Dashboard for FAST-41 transparency status, a designation made by the U.S. Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council (Permitting Council). This move places Angel Island in an exclusive group of American mineral projects recognized for their critical role in the nation’s future energy landscape.
What does this status actually mean for Century Lithium and the Angel Island project? At its core, FAST-41, created by the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act in 2015 and referenced and leveraged by President Trump’s March 20, 2025, Executive Order 14241 “Immediate Measures to Increase American Mineral Production”, was designed to untangle the often-convoluted process of federal permitting and boost transparency. When a project lands on the Permitting Dashboard, it’s not simply an honorary mention. Instead, it earns a higher profile among federal agencies and receives public, trackable timelines for approvals, keeping all parties more accountable and strictly monitored throughout the environmental review process. According to Permitting Council data, FAST-41-backed projects achieve final decisions on average nearly 18 months faster than those left to navigate the bureaucracy alone.
Century Lithium’s Angel Island is one of only a handful of sedimentary lithium deposits in the United States at advanced development. What separates Angel Island from the crowd is not just its scale, as feasibility studies estimate an average annual output of 34,000 tonnes of battery-grade lithium carbonate over a planned 40-year mine life, but also its technological ambition. The company is leveraging an innovative chloride-based leach process and direct lithium extraction, aiming to reduce environmental impact and recover value through by-product sales, namely sodium hydroxide. This dual revenue approach allows Angel Island to pursue one of the lowest estimated operating costs in North America, roughly $2,833 per tonne, according to the latest feasibility numbers.
For CEO Bill Willoughby, the new status is far from symbolic. “We are thankful for the Permitting Council’s selection,” Willoughby said recently, emphasizing that the project’s dashboard listing is about more than increased government attention, it is about visible, efficient, and fair reviews that the market can follow in real time. Willoughby’s optimism echoes the broader shift in U.S. government priorities following President Trump’s executive order in March 2025, which explicitly called for increased domestic mineral production. Policies like these have led to a spike in critical mineral projects coming forward, with Angel Island joining ranks alongside other high-profile mining efforts in recent months.
The federal government certainly seems eager to fast-track domestic lithium production, framing it as a matter of national and economic security, not just energy transition. Emily Domenech, Executive Director of the Permitting Council, underscored the strategic implications. “The critical minerals that these projects can produce would be game-changing for our nation as we work to reduce our reliance on China and strengthen our national and economic security,” she said at the announcement welcoming Angel Island to the Dashboard. For a mineral like lithium, central to batteries for electric vehicles and grid storage, the need for a resilient, local supply chain is especially urgent.
Angel Island’s progress on the permitting track is more than procedural news, it is a test case for how the U.S. handles the urgent race for battery minerals. The relatively transparent path that FAST-41 promises should give stakeholders, from environmental groups to end-users in the battery industry, real-time insights into how a project is moving through the pipeline. If Century Lithium’s bet on efficiency, sustainability, and government coordination pays off, Angel Island could become not just a source of lithium, but a blueprint for how the U.S. supplies its own clean energy ambitions.
