PERTH (miningweekly.com) - Lithium boron developer ioneer has inked a binding offtake agreement with the joint venture between majors Toyota Motor Corporation and Panasonic Corporation, Prime Planet Energy & Solutions (PPES).
Under the offtake agreement ioneer will supply PPES with 4 000 t/y of lithium carbonate from the Rhyolite Ridge project, in Nevada, over a period of five years. The offtake agreement represents 19% of the yearly output at Rhyolite Ridge in the first five years of operation.
ioneer is expected to produce an average of 20 600 t/y of lithium carbonate/hydroxide and 174 400 t/y of boric acid over the Rhyolite Ridge’s 26-year life. The company said that the dual production of lithium and boric acid allows ioneer to not only produce lithium in the US, but to do so at the very bottom of the global cost curve.
ioneer anticipates starting production in 2025 to support urgent requirements for battery materials in the US.
ioneer recently struck an offtake agreement with automotive major Ford Motor Company to deliver 7 000 t/y of lithium carbonate from the Rhyolite Ridge lithium/boron operation, over a five-year term.