ioneer Ltd. (North Sydney, Australia), an emerging lithium-boron supplier, is pleased to announce it has awarded DuPont Clean Technologies (DuPont) a contract for the license, engineering, and supply of proprietary equipment for the planned sulfuric acid plant (Plant) at the Company’s Rhyolite Ridge Lithium-Boron Project in Nevada.
Specialty technology provider DuPont will work with engineering partner SNC-Lavalin on the Plant design, providing MECS sulfuric acid production technology for a plant with a capacity of 3,500 metric tons per day, and controls that limit emissions to among the lowest in the world for this type of facility.
The DuPont contract is conditional on a final investment decision on the Project by the ioneer Board of Directors.
Employing advanced technologies, the Plant will meet stringent NV Class II air quality standards and water pollution control. DuPont will also supply its latest generation MECS Super GEAR catalyst and other critical proprietary equipment.
The plant will convert sulfur into commercial-grade sulfuric acid, used to leach lithium and boron from the crushed rock.
The heat released in the process will be recovered to produce steam for electricity. The Plant will generate an initial 35 MW of electricity, which is sufficient to power the entire Rhyolite Ridge operation and means ioneer will not draw electricity from the grid. Rhyolite Ridge will be an energy-independent operation, using primarily co-generated, zero-carbon power.
The heat generated will also be used for evaporation and crystallisation processes required to produce lithium carbonate and boric acid.
The Plant’s capability was an instrumental part of ioneer’s receipt of a Class II Air Quality Permit in June 2021 by the State of Nevada Division of Environmental Protection Bureau of Air Pollution Control, which is a requirement for the commencement of Project construction. It is the first sulphuric acid plant permitted in Nevada.
Once operational, Rhyolite Ridge is expected to produce 20,600 metric tons per year (m.t./yr) of lithium carbonate, converting in year four to 22,000 m.t./yr of battery-grade lithium hydroxide, and 174,400 m.t./yr of boric acid. Pending final federal US Department of the Interior (DOI) approval of the Plan of Operation, the Project is expected to begin production in the second half of 2024.
Ioneer also recently awarded a major engineering and equipment supply contract to Veolia Water Technologies Inc. for the development of the Rhyolite Ridge Project. Veolia has commenced work on final detailed engineering design of the equipment package, which includes evaporation, crystallization and dewatering equipment. It is the largest single supply contract that ioneer will award as part of the Rhyolite Ridge build.
The contract has been awarded on a limited notice to proceed basis. Phase one, the supply of engineering services for detailed design, has commenced while phase two, the supply of equipment, is conditional on a final investment decision on the Project by ioneer’s Board of Directors. Veolia and ioneer have been working together since 2018 to demonstrate the feasibility of the process design, including design and operation of ioneer’s full simulation pilot plant in Vancouver, British Columbia. Veolia has also conducted laboratory testing and simulated key unit operations including clarification, ion exchange purification, evaporation, crystallization, and precipitation at Veolia’s Phillip J. Stewart Technology Center in Plainfield, IL (USA) including the production of high-purity lithium hydroxide monohydrate. The results obtained from this work further confirmed the design parameters, reduced the technical risks and boosted the project economics.