Alex Kimani
Alex Kimani is a veteran finance writer, investor, engineer and researcher for Safehaven.com.
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By Alex Kimani – Oct 28, 2024, 7:00 PM CDT
- The Biden Administration approved its very first lithium mine last week.
- According to Australia-based Ioneer, the Rhyolite Ridge will supply enough lithium for more than 370K U.S.-made electric vehicles annually.
- Last week, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and the Arkansas Department of Energy and Environment’s Office of the State Geologist announced the discovery of a vast lithium reserve.
Last week, the Rhyolite Ridge Lithium-Boron Project in Nevada became the first-ever lithium mine to receive the green light from the Biden administration. Shares of project owner, Ioneer Ltd (NASDAQ:IONR), have surged more than 20% after the announcement, with the company saying it received final federal approval for the project from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management as part of the Biden administration’s attempt to boost domestic production of minerals seen as critical for electric vehicle batteries.
According to Australia-based Ioneer, the Rhyolite Ridge will supply enough lithium for more than 370K U.S.-made electric vehicles annually. Early this year, Ioneer received a conditional commitment from the U.S. Department of Energy for as much as $700M.
“The Rhyolite Ridge lithium mine project is essential to advancing the clean energy transition and powering the economy of the future,” Laura Daniel-Davis, acting deputy interior secretary, said in a statement. “This project and the process we have undertaken demonstrates that we can pursue responsible critical mineral development here in the United States, while protecting the health of our public lands and resources.”
In the final permit, the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management determined that the mine would not jeopardize the survival of Tiehm’s buckwheat, a wildflower that grows only on lithium- and boron-rich soil in Esmeralda County, Nevada. The agency noted that Ioneer plans to protect roughly 719 acres designated as critical habitat for the wildflower.
Major Lithium Discoveries
Last week, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and the Arkansas Department of Energy and Environment’s Office of the State Geologist announced the discovery of a vast lithium reserve containing more than nine times the International Energy Agency’s projection of global lithium demand for electric vehicles in 2030. A relic of an ancient sea that left an extensive, porous, and permeable limestone geologic, the Smackover Formation extends under parts of Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida, and could contain between 5 and 19 million tons of lithium reserves.
“Our research was able to estimate the total lithium present in the southwestern portion of the Smackover in Arkansas for the first time. We estimate there is enough dissolved lithium present in that region to replace U.S. imports of lithium and more. It is important to caution that these estimates are an in-place assessment.