Aussie miner lands $1.6 billion for US lithium project

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Sydney-headquartered lithium miner Ioneer has been awarded a $1.6 billion (USD 996 million) loan as the United States (US) government looks to build up the nation’s domestic battery supply chain and reduce its reliance on foreign supply of raw materials.

The now 20-year loan, $476.5 million (USD 296 million) higher than a preliminary funding offer announced in 2023, will be used to develop an on-site processing facility at Ioneer’s “fully permitted and construction ready” Rhyolite Ridge lithium-boron project, about 360 kilometres north of Las Vegas.

In announcing the loan, the US Department of Energy said the urgency to secure critical materials for batteries is expected to rapidly increase in the coming years as demand for lithium is projected to exceed current global production by 2030.

This is subsequently causing US auto manufacturers to seek a robust domestic supply of critical materials to keep pace with the increased demand.

Ioneer said the Rhyolite Ridge deposit contains enough lithium to power upward of 50 million electric vehicles (EVs) and it has already penned offtake agreements with Ford and other EV manufacturers.

Ioneer Chairman James Calaway said the project – set to be the first new lithium mine in the US in almost 60 years and the first new boron mine in close to a century – will help rebalance the global supply of lithium and boron production and processing currently dominated by China and Turkey.

“The need for domestically sourced and processed lithium and boron has never been greater,” he said. “We’re thrilled to provide these critical battery components to the American manufacturing supply chain.”

Construction of the Rhyolite Ridge project is slated to begin later this year, with production commencing by 2028.

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