Rhyolite Ridge’s biggest investor has pulled out of the project saying it did not meet their pricing assumptions.
South African precious metals mining company Sibanye-Stillwater has pulled out of the lithium-boron project from company Ioneer Limited. Located in Esmeralda County, Rhyolite Ridge is the largest known lithium and boron deposit in North America and will quadruple the nation’s current domestic lithium supply once operational.
“The Board resolved not to proceed with Rhyolite Ridge as, among other things, the Project did not meet the Sibanye-Stillwater investment hurdle rates at prudent pricing assumptions,” stated Sibanye-Stillwater’s news release.
Sibanye-Stillwater announced in 2021 plans to invest $490 million into the project for a 50 percent ownership stake. The decision to pull out comes after the price of lithium plunged by around 80 percent, after its peak in 2022.
“Ioneer secured its crucial federal permit and closed a $996 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy Loan Programs Office via the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing program,” said Ioneer in a statement. “Sibanye-Stillwater Ltd was not a signatory to the loan and today’s decision will have no impact on Ioneer’s ability to draw on the loan once conditions precedent have been met.”
In January, Ioneer received a $996 million loan from the DOE through its Loan Programs Office under the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing program to support on-site processing of lithium-boron at its Rhyolite Ridge Lithium-Boron Project in Esmeralda County, according to a news release from the company.
Multiple concerns have been raised about the Rhyolite Ridge mine, saying the mine will drive the extinction of the endangered rare wildflower Tiehm’s buckwheat and destroy indigenous peoples sacred lands.
“Sibanye Stillwater’s decision to pull out of Rhyolite Ridge highlights all of the problems with this project,” said Scott Lake at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The mine poses an existential threat to the only known population of the endangered wildflower Tiehm’s buckwheat. Ioneer and the federal officials that approved and funded this project knew the risks but proceeded anyway with a highly irregular and rushed permitting process that violated numerous laws.”
The mine will power around 370,000 electric vehicles per year, create around 500 construction jobs and 350 jobs during the mine’s life cycle. It is expected to be “state-of-the-art,” recycling half of all water use and avoid the use of evaporation ponds to limit water used during operations.
Contact Emerson Drewes at edrewes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @EmersonDrewes on X.
