Ore reserve quadruples for Rhyolite Ridge Project

Highlights

• Rhyolite Ridge Ore Reserve more than quadrupled from 60 million t in 2020 to 247 million t, delivering a mine life of 95 years./li>
• Ore Reserve now contains a total of 1.92 Mt of lithium carbonate equivalent and 7.68 Mt of boric acid equivalent./li>
• Underpinning plans for a large, long-life, low-cost expandable operation, producing lithium carbonate, boric acid, and then battery-grade lithium hydroxide./li>
• Stable co-product - boric acid accounts for an average 25% of annual revenue in the first 25 years, helping ensure positive EBITDA at low lithium prices and EBITDA margin of 65.7% based on average production over first 25 years./li>
• All-in sustaining cash cost of US$5745 per metric tonne lithium carbonate equivalent places the Rhyolite Ridge Project in the bottom of the global lithium cost curve./li>
• Compelling Project economics with an after-tax NPV of US$1.367 billion, and an unlevered, after-tax internal rate of return (IRR) of 14.5%.

Bernard Rowe, Managing Director, Ioneer, said:

“Today’s updated Reserve and Mine Plan reinforces the importance of Rhyolite Ridge’s remarkable mineralogy. Our Ore Reserve estimate of 247 Mt containing a total of 1.92 Mt LCE and 7.68 Mt BAE make it the largest lithium-boron Reserve in the world. It allows Ioneer to match prevailing market conditions and blend or prioritise ore to produce a valuable boric acid coproduct, whose market is uncorrelated with the project’s primary lithium product. No other lithium project offers this level of flexibility and economic advantage. In periods of low cycle lithium pricing, like today, we plan to prioritise the high-boron ore production to optimise the relative proportion of total revenue derived from boric acid.”

Read the article online at: https://www.globalminingreview.com/exploration-development/02062025/ore-reserve-quadruples-for-rhyolite-ridge-project/