Ioneer Ltd. moved one step closer toward construction at its Rhyolite Ridge Lithium-Boron site, following the Bureau of Land Management?s (BLM) planned issuance of the project?s draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), as referenced in the BLM?s statement on 12 April 2024. The pending release of this draft EIS is the first to be issued from the Biden Administration as part of its efforts to accelerate domestic lithium production. It is the result of years of effective collaboration between Ioneer and federal, state and local agencies and Tribal Nations.

It marks a key milestone in the environmental permitting review process for the proposed greenfield project in Esmeralda County, Nevada, set to inject a critical supply of integral transition materials into the U.S. EV battery production supply chain. The draft document will include Ioneer?s efforts to redesign and relocate proposed project activity away from Tiehm?s buckwheat, an endangered species classified by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) in December 2022. The draft EIS will also detail Ioneer?s investments as part of a formal protection plan and propagation strategy for the Nevada plant.

The draft EIS will be available for public comment beginning 19 April. Reaching this stage of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) permitting process reflects federal inter-agency collaboration and agreement that the draft document is ready for public input. Following the prescribed 45-day comment period, which will include BLM-organized public meetings, the BLM will incorporate feedback into a final draft and issue a final EIS and a Record of Decision (ROD), expected in October 2024.

Upon issuance of a positive ROD, construction at Rhyolite Ridge can begin following a Final Investment Decision (FID). Based on that timeline, Ioneer anticipates production to begin in 2027. At the request of the BLM and FWS to further minimise impacts to the plant and its critical habitat, Ioneer?s revised design, set to be released on 19 April, additionally changed the location of the quarry and overburden storage facilities to avoid any direct impacts to nearby subpopulations of Tiehm?s buckwheat and mitigate any potential indirect impacts.