A $996 million loan for Ioneer's Rhyolite Ridge lithium project was announced on Jan. 17 to support the development of a lithium-boron mining project.
The finalized loan saw an increase of $296 million from a preliminary funding offer issued in 2023.
According to Ioneer, the project will create hundreds of rural jobs, support American manufacturers, and help rebalance the global supply of lithium and boron.
Once fully operational in 2028, Rhyolite Ridge will quadruple the nation’s current domestic lithium supply, power an estimated 370,000 electric vehicles per year, create an estimated 500 jobs during construction and 350 high paying jobs, Bernard Rowe Ioneer’s managing director said.
“There is not another lithium deposit like this anywhere in the world, it's not a lithium deposit, it's a lithium and boron deposit with very unique mineralogy,” Rowe said.
However, environmental groups remain concerned. In a 2024 lawsuit filed against the Department of Interior and other agencies, groups including the Center for Biological Diversity, argue the project threatens the rare wildflower Tiehm’s buckwheat.
The mine would directly destroy about 191 acres of the wildflower’s critical habitat, according to the lawsuit.
Rowe defended the company’s conservation efforts.
“We have a strong opinion on this, and we do not think that the project will have the negative impacts that have been implied on Tiehm’s buckwheat, that the two can coexist and the science shows that and the studies that have been done by the government, i.e. the Fish and Wildlife Service, have concluded that as well. We're not actually working in the area of the Tiehm's buckwheat in the early years of the project. We're outside of the critical habitat,” Rowe said.
But Patrick Donnelly, Great Basin director at the Center, remains skeptical. Ioneer is “greenwashing” its environmental impact, he said.
“They use really cutesy language to say, ‘Oh, we're staying out of the buckwheat habitat.’ But it's just not true. They are destroying the buckwheat’s habitat. Our lawsuit alleges that the government disregarded independent and peer reviewed science and instead relied solely on scientists being paid by Ioneer,” Donnelly said.
Donnelly added that more than 100 scientists urged the Biden administration to immediately protect Tiehm’s buckwheat. He predicts the lawsuit will delay the project.
“I think it's inevitable that this will impact their timeline, because no matter what happens at District Court, someone's going to appeal to the circuit court. And so we're looking at multiple years for this litigation, and I think I feel very confident that if we have to apply for preliminary injunction to stop construction, we will be successful,” Donnelly said.
But Rowe said the lawsuit will not impact the timeline of the project.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed Tiehm’s buckwheat as endangered in 2022, a designation Donnelly sees as critical to maintaining the integrity of the law.