Oct 17 (Reuters) - General Motors ( GM ) is eyeing

further North American investments in lithium and other critical

minerals used to build electric vehicles after boosting its

investment in a Nevada mine to nearly $1 billion earlier this

week, an executive said on Thursday.

The U.S. automaker on Wednesday said it would form a joint

venture with Lithium Americas ( LAC ) to develop the Thacker

Pass lithium mine, North America's largest source of the battery

metal.

The move increases GM's investment in the project by an

additional $325 million to $950 million after an initial

investment announced last year. It also gives the automaker a

partial ownership stake in the mine and doubles its access to

production to at least 20 years.

While the Thacker Pass JV should supply GM with a

"significant" amount of its lithium, the company is open to

other critical minerals deals on the continent, Jeff Morrison,

GM's senior vice president of global purchasing and supply

chain, said in an interview on Thursday.

A majority of GM's deals are for minerals supply, not

necessarily JVs, and the automaker likely would continue that

approach, he added.

"We don't want to become a mining company," Morrison said.

"Our main goal is to build out a North American based,

Western-allied, reliant supply chain. To do that, we have to

pick partners and assets and figure out what they need to do to

industrialize and be successful."

GM also has agreements to buy cobalt from Glencore ( GLCNF ),

an investment in nickel and cobalt miner Queensland Pacific

Metals ( QPMLF ), and a lithium supply deal with Arcadium Lithium ( ARLTF )

, among others.

The automaker in 2021 invested in Controlled Thermal

Resources Hell's Kitchen geothermal brine project in California,

although that project has experienced delays.

Morrison said GM is "still working with them and still

staying close with them."