ioneer Ltd (ASX:INR) has awarded the engineering and design contract for the sulphuric acid plant component of the Rhyolite Ridge definitive feasibility study (DFS).
Best-in-class sulphuric acid production technology will be used in the design of the acid plant which will produce 3,500 tonnes per day of sulphuric acid for leaching purposes.
The acid plant will also produce the steam/heat necessary for the processing plant.
SNC provided an updated budgetary cost estimate of about US$111 million, which is about US$60 million lower than the US$1770 million estimated in the preliminary feasibility study (PFS) in October 2018.
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ioneer’s managing director Bernard Rowe said: “SNC-Lavalin is a longstanding leader in the sulphuric acid industry, they have a strong track record working with industry leading MECS® technology from DuPont Clean Technologies.
“We are very pleased SNC-Lavalin and Du Pont will be joining us and our project lead engineers, Fluor, to further strengthen our world class team that is focused on progressing the DFS for the Rhyolite Ridge Lithium-Boron project, and to delivering an on budget and on-schedule project.
“The cost of the sulphuric acid plant is a key capex driver for the Rhyolite Ridge Project and the saving of approximately US$60 million is significant and materially improves the already robust project economics demonstrated through the PFS.”
ioneer presenting at Goldman Sachs conference today
ioneer is presenting at the Goldman Sachs Annual Emerging Leaders Conference in Sydney today.
The company is focused on developing the globally significant Rhyolite Ridge Lithium-Boron Project in Nevada.