Australia-based ioneer Ltd is announcing its first offtake agreement from its planned Rhyolite Ridge lithium-boron project in Nevada, Kallanish reports.

The agreement is with South Korea’s EcoPro Innovation Co Ltd, a subsidiary of the EcoPro Group and a cathode materials manufacturer. Testing showed that the Nevada lithium met the standards of the Korean company to produce battery-grade lithium hydroxide, the parties say in the announcement.

The deal calls for ioneer to provide the Korean company with 7,000 tonnes/year of lithium carbonate over three years. The first 2,000 t/y are firm and the additional 5,000 t/y are optional. The agreement is dependent on ioneer completing a final investment decision on the project.

The deal represents up to 34% of ioneer’s annual lithium carbonate output for the first three years of production, the company says. The deal marks “a significant milestone for ioneer and will be a valuable partnership,” says ioneer managing director Bernard Rowe in a statement.

Ioneer says it expects to produce about 20,600 t/y of lithium carbonate or about 22,000 t/y of lithium hydroxide, along with about 174,400 t/y of boric acid over the mine’s 26 years of operation. Production is expected to begin in late 2023.

The company has signed agreements to sell 100% of boric acid production from Rhyolite Ridge in year one and up to 85% of production in years two and three.

The company wants to develop its mine and processing facilities in Esmeralda County, even as the US Fish and Wildlife Service says it intends to protect a rare Nevada wildflower under the federal Endangered Species Act. The company says its mine can co-exist with the Tiehm’s buckwheat and the company’s conservation and protection measures could aid the plant in its recovery.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service must offer a proposed rule before 30 September along with a public comment period. A final decision on the endangered species listing must be released by 30 September, 2022. A proposed critical habitat rule must be proposed by 31 January, 2022.

The plant is reported only in about 4 hectares in the Silver Peak Range in western Nevada. It grows only in mineralised soils with high levels of lithium and boron.

The Rhyolite Ridge project includes two deposits that are about 4 kilometres apart southwest of Tonopah, Nevada. The lithium and boron mineral resources are about 146.5 million t. Last month, the project got its required air permit from the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection.