Rhyolite Ridge has recovered a caller investor: an instauration of the South Korean government.
Rhyolite Ridge lithium-boron task from Australian institution Ioneer Limited has signed strategical non-binding letters of intent with the Korea Overseas Infrastructure & Urban Development Corp. and Hyundai Engineering Co. Ltd., according to an announcement.
The Korea Overseas Infrastructure & Urban Development Corporation is simply a nationalist instauration of the Republic of Korea, mandated by its Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to “facilitate and put successful overseas infrastructure and public-private concern projects,” the property merchandise said.
Hyundai Engineering is simply a Korean and planetary engineering, procurement and operation company, which volition “advance the development” of the Rhyolite Ridge project.
“Rhyolite Ridge has been a decennary successful the making — done ongoing partnerships, permitting, and financing. Working with trusted Korean partners with a way grounds of on-time and on-budget transportation brings america person to breaking crushed and delivering urgently needed lithium and boron,” said Bernard Rowe, managing manager astatine Ioneer. “We’re delighted to enactment with KIND and Hyundai Engineering and look guardant to what we’ll execute together.”
Ioneer said successful a quality merchandise that presently the LOIs are “non-binding and bash not make legally enforceable obligations” for KIND and Hyundai Engineering
“There tin beryllium nary certainty that legally binding arrangements volition beryllium entered into,” said Ioneer successful the quality release.
Formal memorandums of knowing are expected by July.
Once operational, the excavation volition make astir 300 imperishable on-site positions and volition nutrient 27,800 tonnes of lithium hydroxide and 135,500 tonnes of boric acerb annually.
This quality comes aft South African precious metals mining institution Sibanye-Stillwater, the mine’s largest investor, pulled retired of the task successful February 2025. Sibanye-Stillwater had plans to put $490 cardinal into the task for a 50 percent ownership stake. The determination to propulsion retired came aft the terms of lithium plunged by astir 80 percent astatine the time, aft its highest successful 2022.
Rhyolite Ridge is 1 of 2 known lithium-boron reserves globally and the lone 1 successful North America. Once operational, it volition quadruple the nation’s existent home lithium supply.
In January 2025, Ioneer received a $996 cardinal indebtedness from the Department of Energy done its Loan Programs Office nether the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing programme to enactment on-site processing of lithium-boron astatine its Rhyolite Ridge Lithium-Boron Project successful Esmeralda County, according to a quality merchandise from the company.
Multiple concerns person been raised astir the Rhyolite Ridge mine, saying the excavation volition thrust the extinction of the endangered uncommon wildflower Tiehm’s buckwheat and destruct indigenous peoples ineffable lands.
“Rhyolite Ridge Mine was approved done a permitting process riddled with errors and omissions and stacked successful favour of the thousand-foot-deep open-pit mine,” said Patrick Donnelly, Great Basin manager astatine the Center for Biological Diversity. “Independent scientists hold that the excavation volition thrust Tiehm’s buckwheat to extinction.”
In April, the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity, which is headquartered successful Tuscon, Arizona, filed an entreaty successful the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The entreaty is an effort to overturn a national tribunal ruling that upheld the support of the mine, which the biology radical said would thrust the uncommon wildflower to extinction.
Contact Emerson Drewes astatine edrewes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @EmersonDrewes connected X.
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