Anson Resources Ltd (ASX:ASN) has been granted a small source emissions exemption by the State of Utah’s Department of Environmental Quality for its Paradox Lithium Project in the USA, a huge win for being committed to environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles in its business conduct.
The approval exempts Paradox from being subjected to the federal government’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) supervision or oversight, which means that the project could go into production quicker than expected.
This permit is a key requirement for full-scale processing and securing it is consistent with Anson's aim of developing Paradox into a sustainable lithium-producing operation with minimal impact on the environment.
“Extremely significant approval”
“Anson is working through the approval process on the pathway towards production at the Paradox Project,” Anson Resources executive chairman and chief executive officer Bruce Richardson said.
“The emission exception is an extremely significant approval, as securing a small source emissions exemption at state level from the Utah Department of Environmental Quality means that the company will not be required to seek any further air quality permits from the Federal EPA.
“Anson has designed the Paradox Project to extract, transport, process and dispose of lithium-bearing brine on state or private areas.
“This will likely have a positive impact on the proposed timeline to production, as the Government of Utah is supportive of the project and its approval timeline is expected to be comparatively shorter than federal government approval.
“Government approval timelines are difficult to estimate, but Anson considers that it is approximately 50% of the way through the approvals process at Paradox, with several other requisite government approvals being concurrently progressed.”
The ASX-lister has lodged several other applications that require state government approval and they are expected to be granted in the coming months to coincide with the completion of the front end engineering and design study (FEED).