What are the latest updates at Rhyolite Ridge?

The project is now in the final stages of permitting. We are putting the financing in place and expect to be producing lithium and boric acid late in 2025. The initial mine life is around 26 years and will produce an average of around 22,000 t/y of lithium carbonate, and around 174,000 t/y of boric acid. There will be variations over time, but the lithium output is expected to be relatively constant. The 26 years estimate is based on our reserve, which is 60 million tons. However, we have already drilled a total of 146 million tons of resources. This means we could potentially double production or extend the mine life. Overall, Rhyolite Ridge is a very advanced project that will be a long-life, low-cost supplier of lithium for the US. The socio-economic impact is considerable. The construction phase will create approximately 500 direct jobs, followed by about 250 full-time jobs during operation.

Can you expand on ioneer’s community initiatives?

We fully understand the importance of making sure our operation has a positive impact on the broader community and allows it to participate in the benefits of the transition to the new energy economy. That goes beyond providing jobs, it means being integrated into the community. About 200 people live in Fish Lake Valley, and I know most of them, as I have been working in the area long before Rhyolite Ridge came along. One of the most important things of all is communication and that includes listening, informing, and providing feedback to the community. For years, we have also provided updates to local elected officials and engaged with Tribal representatives. Beyond that, we have programs at the local school where our chemical engineers and scientists assist with STEM-type classes, we sponsor social events and help raise funds for projects such as the local emergency medical team.

What measures will ioneer leverage to make Rhyolite Ridge the most water-efficient lithium operation in the US?

There are several types of lithium mines. The only active producer in the US is a brine operation, Silver Peak. Highly saline water is pumped out into shallow ponds, the water evaporates, and lithium and other salts concentrate. This process uses the sun’s energy to evaporate large quantities of water.

Rhyolite Ridge is different. It is solid rock that we will mine and crush. We will extract the lithium and the boron from the crushed rock by using a vat leaching process, which is the same as is used in the copper industry. This process removes the lithium and boron from the rock and puts it into a solution (liquid). We then concentrate the lithium in the solution to extract it. We use large tanks (evaporators) to boil the liquid and drive off the water. The steam that comes off is captured, cooled, and condensed back into water that can be reused. Approximately 50% of our water gets recycled like that. It’s a closed system, meaning we can recycle a lot of the water we use. In addition, making sulfuric acid from sulfur generates a lot of heat as the reaction is exothermic. Rather than letting it go to waste, we capture that heat and generate steam for the processing plant and electricity by running some of the steam through a steam turbine. We do not use gas from pipelines nor do we use grid power- we are entirely off-grid and generate nearly all of our energy needs in this way. The energy from the acid plant has zero CO2 emissions.

To what extent will Rhyolite Ridge leverage new automation technologies?

Rhyolite Ridge will rely solely on autonomous vehicles, controlled by people in control centres. Cashman Equipment will supply and maintain our autonomous haulage trucks. These trucks will take the crushed ore from the mine site to the processing plant, about 2kms away. They will be guarded by GPS and other technology located onsite, so every movement will be monitored and controlled through sophisticated guidance systems. This will be the first greenfield operation in the U.S. to use autonomous hauling systems. With autonomy comes efficiency and safety. If you can remove humans from the areas where you have large tonnages of rock being moved, the net result is a much-improved safety environment. When it's greenfield, it is easier to implement new technologies, you have more flexibility.

Why is ioneer going to be a key player in the green transition?

We are confident that later this decade we will see a complete domestic supply chain from lithium chemicals to cathodes, to batteries and electric vehicles. When we negotiate offtake agreements, we ensure that the lithium must end up in cars manufactured in the US. We are positioning ourselves as a key partner in the US domestic supply chain.