Construction is now scheduled to begin in 2025, with production scheduled to begin in 2028, according to Ioneer. During the construction phase, it is scheduled to create 500 job opportunities, which will be followed later by another 350 job opportunities with “high wages” extending over “decades of work.” According to the company, the Rhyolite Ridge project is the first American lithium project to receive approval from the Biden administration.
The approval in itself is an important interim step, but it does not yet mean that construction will begin. Ioneer has yet to make a final investment decision. This is expected to occur in the first quarter of 2025. The department is making this estimate “taking into account the Sibanye-Stillwater Agreement, the DOE Energy Loan Programs Office conditional loan and any conditional loan.”
Close other financing required. However, the final touches have been finalized for customers Ford, Prime Planet Energy & Solutions, the battery joint venture between Toyota and Panasonic, and EcoPro.
In order to obtain the license, Ioneer had to change some points in the layout over time. For example, this included protecting a rare plant species called Eriogonum Tiehmii, also known as Tiehm buckwheat. To that end, the site of the quarry’s western face was “substantially” relocated in 2022, and “all possible infrastructure and associated disturbances were moved to areas outside critical habitat.” Separately, there were also requirements for water conservation and dust and noise monitoring.
Ioneer accepted these terms because, according to Executive Chairman James Callaway, “there are few deposits in the world as influential as Rhyolite Ridge.” “Today’s approval of Ioneer’s federal permit is the culmination of countless hours of work and a testament to our incredible team’s dedication to developing and building one of the most sustainable mining projects in the country,” Callaway said.
The Rhyolite Ridge project is scheduled to last 26 years. On an annual average, 20,600 tons of lithium carbonate/lithium hydroxide will be extracted along with about 174,400 tons of boric acid per year. “The dual production of lithium and boric acid allows Ioneer to produce lithium not only in the United States, but at the lower end of the global cost curve,” it said in 2022 when the agreement with Prime Planet Energy & Solutions was signed. However, at that time, there was still talk of a planned production start in 2025. Now, construction is scheduled to begin next year.
Ioneer website (PDF)
