Ioneer (ASX: INR) has awarded a major engineering and equipment supply contract to Veolia Water Technologies, for the development of the company’s wholly owned Rhyolite Ridge lithium-boron project in Nevada.
Veolia has begun 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 is a world leader in the design and delivery of systems for purification, recovery and drying of inorganic chemicals using HPD evaporation and crystallization technologies. Furthermore, Veolia provides state-of-the-art research and development capabilities to facilitate the understanding of multi-component systems and their optimization for efficiency, operability and final product quality.
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. Veolia has also conducted laboratory testing and simulated key unit operations including clarification, ion exchange purification, evaporation, crystallization, and precipitation at Veolia’s technology center in Illinois, including the production of high purity lithium hydroxide monohydrate.
Learn more about Veolia at www.VeoliaWaterTechnologies.com.