ioneer Ltd (ASX:INR) has strengthened its US operations team by making three key appointments as it advances development of the Rhyolite Ridge Project in Nevada towards lithium and boron production.
Rhyolite Ridge is expected to produce an annual average of around 20,600 tonnes of lithium carbonate, or about 22,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide, along with about 174,400 tonnes of boric acid over the mine’s 26-year life.
The new appointments are Rob Stepper as director of process engineering, Sasha Meyer as director of mining and Kori Breschini as director of supply chain management.
“Continue to build US-based team”
ioneer managing director Bernard Rowe said: “We are extremely pleased to announce these key appointments and welcome Rob, Sasha and Kori to our management team.
“They bring deep mining, production engineering and supply chain expertise to our team and have all worked on various projects in Nevada where Rhyolite Ridge is located.
“We have continued to build our US-based team as we ready ourselves for the commencement of construction of Rhyolite Ridge.”
Former GM at Coeur Mining
Rob Stepper, who has been appointed director of process engineering, joins ioneer from Coeur Mining Inc, where he was general manager of the open pit Rochester Silver-Gold Mine in Nevada for the last decade.
During his tenure, he oversaw a major expansion of Rochester’s production and mine life.
In addition, Stepper is also a metallurgical engineer and served as an executive committee member of the Nevada Mining Association (NVMA) for seven years, including a term as NVMA chair in 2019/20.
Former chief mine engineer at McEwen
Sasha Meyer has been appointed ioneer’s director of mining.
Meyer was the technical services manager and chief mine engineer at US gold-silver producer McEwen Mining Inc (NYSE:MUX) and was recently project manager at the Ruby Hill open-pit, heap leach gold mine in Nevada.
Being a mining engineer, Meyer has held senior engineering, safety, environment and technical services roles and has made significant improvements to mining engineering systems and business processes.
To lead supply chain strategy and execution
Kori Breschini, who joins as director of supply chain management, was previously supply chain manager at Nevada-based gold and silver producer, Hycroft Mining Holding Corporation (NASDAQ:HYMC).
Prior to that, he held senior procurement roles at Barrick Corporation and Sibanye Stillwater.
Breschini will lead ioneer’s supply chain strategy and execution, which includes managing suppliers, procurement and inventory management on-site at Rhyolite Ridge.
- Ephrems Joseph