LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A brand new estimate signifies the Rhyolite Ridge mine web site northwest of Las Vegas has 45% extra lithium-boron deposits than beforehand calculated.
Ioneer, the Australian firm behind the mine undertaking, launched the up to date estimate lower than every week after dropping its greatest investor, a South African multinational mining firm that dropped out citing low lithium costs. Ioneer is now the 100% proprietor of the Rhyolite Ridge undertaking.
“Today’s updated Resource reinforces the remarkable flexibility of Rhyolite Ridge’s unique mineralogy,” Bernard Rowe, Ioneer’s managing director, stated in a information launch. “It allows Ioneer to match prevailing market conditions and blend our ore to produce a valuable boric acid coproduct, whose market is separate from the Project’s primary lithium product.”
The mine web site is in Esmeralda County, halfway between Las Vegas and Reno. The mine was accepted in October 2024. In January, the U.S. Division of Vitality finalized a $996 million mortgage for the undertaking
Solely energetic lithium mine in US seeks enlargement in Nevada’s Esmeralda County
Evaluation of samples from 12 drill holes accomplished in 2024 led to the 45% enhance within the estimate. The evaluation was accomplished by an unbiased mining advisor
“No other lithium project has this flexibility and economic advantage. In times of low lithium pricing as exists today, the Company can prioritize the high-boron ore (Stream 1) over the low-boron ore (Stream 2) to optimize the relative proportion of total revenue derived from boron,” in keeping with Rowe.
Ioneer was not named in a lawsuit filed on Oct. 31, 2024, over the Bureau of Land Administration’s resolution to approve the Rhyolite Ridge mine. A uncommon wildflower — Tiehm’s buckwheat — discovered solely on the web site is prone to go extinct if the mine strikes ahead.
“This lawsuit is about much more than just preventing the extinction of Tiehm’s buckwheat,” Patrick Donnelly, Nice Basin director on the Middle for Organic Variety, stated in a information launch. “The Bureau of Land Management’s authorization of the Rhyolite Ridge Mine is a flagrant violation of numerous environmental protection laws, and the integrity of these bedrock conservation laws is at stake. We need lithium for the crucial transition to renewable energy, but the government can’t break the law and drive species to extinction to get it.”
Tiehm’s buckwheat grows on 10 acres that fall utterly inside the footprint of the boron- and lithium-rich soils of the Silver Peak Vary in Esmeralda County.
