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- Shares in ioneer (INR) spike on the back of an important air quality permit from the Nevada state government
- Nevada’s Department of Environmental Protection issues a Class II Air Quality Permit for ioneer’s Rhyolite Ridge Lithium-Boron Project in the state
- The permit is a requirement for Rhyolite Ridge’s construction and is the first such permit to be issued to a project with sulphuric acid production in Nevada
- ioneer does not comment on the US Fish and Wildlife Service investigation into the Nevada wildflower that could impact the project’s development
- Shares in ioneer are up 7.27 per cent and trading at 29.5 cents each at 3:30 pm AEST
Shares in ioneer (INR) have spiked today after the company announced it has been granted an important air quality permit from the Nevada state government.
The mining company is working to develop the Rhyolite Ridge Lithium-Boron Project in Nevada, with a definitive feasibility study for the project completed in April 2020.
Today, ioneer said the Nevada Department of Environmental Protection (NDEP) Bureau of Air Pollution Control has issued the Rhyolite Ridge project a Class II Air Quality Permit.
This permit is a requirement for ioneer to construct the project and likely comes as welcome news to the company after it flagged earlier this month that a native Nevada wildflower could threaten the potential development of Rhyolite Ridge.
ioneer Managing Director Bernard Rowe said the company’s commitment to responsible production was at the core of its operation.
“The issuance of the Class II Air Quality Permit represents a significant milestone for the Rhyolite Ridge Lithium-Boron Project and supports our details plans for a processing plant with low emissions and minimal hazardous air pollutants,” Mr Rowe said.
He said Rhyolite Ridge is the first project with planned sulphuric acid production to receive such a permit in Nevada.
“We are grateful for the efforts of NDEP, our consultants and ioneer employees to achieve this milestone.”
Once developed, Rhyolite Ridge will be home to a quarry, an overburden storage facility and Nevada’s first sulphuric acid plant. Additionally, the project will include an ore processing facility for boring acid and lithium carbonate.
According to ioneer, the project is designed to become a “profitable producer of the materials necessary for a sustainable future”.
In line with this, ioneer plans to power the project entirely through heat recovery technology — meaning Rhyolite Ridge will be energy-independent and use co-generated zero-carbon power. All this would make the project one of the lowest carbon emission operations of its kind across the globe.
With the air quality permit granted by the Nevada government, ioneer is now closer to seeing this planned project become a reality.
ioneer did not comment on the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) investigation into the Tiehm’s buckwheat flower that could impact the project’s development. A final decision is from the FWS is expected during September 2021.
Shares in ioneer were up 7.27 per cent and trading at 30 cents each at 3:30 pm AEST.
