In September platinum group metal giant Sibanye-Stillwater (JSE: SSW) (NYSE: SBSW) announced it would joint venture with ioneer (ASX: INR) to develop ioneer’s Rhyolite Ridge Lithium-boron project located in Nevada, USA. Executive chair of ioneer, James Calaway, spoke to Kitco mid-October. A definitive feasibility study has already been completed, and ioneer is working towards its final state permits. “We're ready to build. It's a project that's going to quadruple America's lithium production,” said Calaway.
Kitco news special coverage of the Explorer convention it's brought to you by Radisson mining. Deal-making Sylvania Stillwater announced one of its biggest transactions in the battery metal space with eye and ear, which is advancing its rhyolite Ridge lithium project in Nevada. So Bonnie, the world's primary producer platinum with a 10 billion market cap is now focusing on metals that will matter during energy transition.
So banya will contribute 490 million. You become a joint venture in Riley executive chairman of eye and ear is James Calloway. James. Welcome, Nico. It's great to be with you. And it's an exciting time for our. Well, let's get into it. Uh, James, you retired from Lithion giant or a Cobra in 2016. What would you bullet point at Riley?
What makes it such a good place to spend your retirement? Well, I'm not really retired, but I did retire from, from being the chairman of work. Obree, uh, you know, uh, that experience those eight years starting from a tiny little company and building an operating business with the great team at Oracle.
Taught me a lot of lessons about what was important and what's not important in the industry and, you know, practical experience counts and. I'm one of the few people that have could say they're working on their second project, uh, not their first. And, uh, what's exciting about Riley Ridge, many things. Uh, first of all, you noted it's in the United States.
It's, it's, uh, it's nice to be working in a stable jurisdiction. Uh, I think that the second thing is that when you add the boron and the lithium that are both in the same mineralogy, Uh, it turns out by good coincidence, good fortune for us, uh, that, uh, that when we extract from the rock that lithium and boron really through the, basically the same processing, uh, we end up with a huge amount of boron and boric acid that'll allows us to offset the, the overall cost of the project.
And it turns out it makes the, the rival high Ridge, the lowest cost production on the earth at about $2,500 per ton for lithium chemicals. While we were talking just before this interview, it was just important to be on the right side of the cost curve because, um, I don't need to tell you, James, uh, Lithium's had his ups and downs.
It certainly has. And, uh, you know, a year and a half ago, it was all bleak. Uh, I, I knew, uh, from my experience and understanding of the markets that this was a temporary. There was, uh, an early pulse of sort of the low hanging fruit that, and the supply side that came on typically out of Australia, uh, that, uh, imbalanced the situation.
And I also think that the other thing is on the demand side that we were, it was still slightly early in the uptick across the OEMs of the world. Uh, but this time it's really quite a fundamentally different situation than we had before. We're going to get into macro, but, uh, let's just catch up with, uh, eye and ear.
Um, I know that you have some work that you're doing as a test pilot here out of Maya locale in greater Vancouver, but, uh, what's the stage of pioneer. Yeah, it's it's it's by far the most advanced project in the United States, uh, you know, we completed our definitive feasibility study with Fluor corporation, with the world's largest engineering firm.
Uh, almost a year and a half ago and no other lithium project in the United States has even completed the DFS definitive feasibility study. And we continued immediately after the DFS to a very full. To get to final engineering. So at this point we are highly advanced in our engineering. Our testing facilities ran beautifully.
They were very full and complete. Uh, and so, uh, we're, we're really at the point where we're only waiting now for the final federal permit to build, and we can start construction. Typically, of course, that we've just recently brought on our wonderful partners. still water who, uh, essentially. Made it so that our, our capitalization is secure.
So, uh, you know, the combination of great engineering being complete, our testing operations complete, uh, all of our, uh, years of work to prepare for the final permit, complete our state permits. We have. Uh, and really we're waiting at this point to go through the NEPA process and the federal process, uh, which we expect to take, you know, another nine to 12 months, it's just a long process on federal lands.
But other than that, we're ready to build. And you know, it's, it's a project that's going to quadruple America's lithium production. So it's, it's not trivial. It's enough lithium to support the production of about 400,000 electric cars a year for the next 25 years. Uh, the project is significant in its scale.
It's significant. It's important to the United States and it's very important for its supply chain stability and secure. Uh, early this month, uh, the U S fish and wildlife service proposed adding TMS and buckwheat, uh, to the endangered species list is going to be an impact on Riley. You know, we've really from, from the very beginning, as soon as we got out there and we realized the teams is about 10 acres of this, this low kind of looks like a Bush slow low Bush at first, but occasionally it flowers.
Uh, it covers about 10 acres only, and it's on the most Western edge of our project. So we've known about it for, from the very beginning, we've treated very, very carefully. And whereas a company have been committed to developing all the understanding of the plant and very, very detailed understanding of how to make sure.
That our operations in team buckwheat can coexist and look, uh, there's uh, one of the, one of the challenges in the United States is that particularly when you're on federal lands all, and this is for all projects is that there are a certain set of very activist NGOs who, whose mission in life and purpose is to stop development on federal lands and they use.
Whatever means is at their disposal to try to do that. And in our case, it's teams buckwheat. But look, other than that, there aren't any known issues that have been raised by anybody else. We think we've got a great handle on it. And I think that look, we have to make some, we'll have to, we've been making some adjustments, uh, but I think that those adjustments are very easily handled by our project and we expect to get our approval, uh, in the second half of next year.
I'd like to switch to macro, uh, look, there's a suite of metals in the battery metal space. He hear about your Cobalt's, your magnesiums, your copper, your graphite's and rare earth, which are all enjoying a lift due to energy transition. Where does lithium fit in? Vis-a-vis the other metals what's unique about it?
Well, it's interesting. Uh, it, you know, when you started essentially diving into battery chemistry and, uh, uh, there's different things that go into batteries, but I think there's a consensus. There's a strong connection. That the one irreplaceable material in a, in a battery is a light, light duty battery.
Like we're talking about, you know, it can be light and can be used for mobile applications is lithium. Uh, no, no one's even suggested any replacement. Some people talk about, for instance, metal, lithium metal, uh, batteries, solid state batteries, various types, but those all use more lithium. Uh, Cobalt's different.
There's a worldwide effort. Work to try to reduce our, our eliminate, uh, cobalt. Uh, so I think that it has a shorter, uh, uh, period of, uh, of, uh, use, uh, and, and the rest of them are important, but, but the, the, the really enabling material for these fancy batteries, we use it on cars and tablets and phones and other things.
It really is lithium. So, uh, I think that being in the lithium business, Is the most stable place you can be in the battery materials space. There was a big run-up and lithium prices in the last decade before the collapse. What's different this time around James. Well, certainly one thing that's common is that there's been a big run-up in prices, uh, as we have the ones before.
I think that the difference here, uh, is it it's there there's, there's such an explosion of serious, uh, demand creation through every single OEM in the, in the, on the planet, you know, announcing enormous, uh, investments, uh, in, uh, electric car manufacturing capabilities. And so. The, the, the, the feeling now is that the easy low-hanging fruit was found before it's been all chewed up with existing demand.
And the rate of growth of demand is so high. And it's so broad, uh, that, that most people believe we have a fairly, uh, a long period of high prices. Now, look, I don't know where the choke point is, where you start. Pressing down on demand, but, and maybe we're close to that, but, but we're certainly in a band of price that is going to be pretty stable at a, at a level that in incense quality projects to be developed, like, like while I read.
Uh, there's two companies that you, or should say rather, there's two countries you keep hearing about, uh, regarding battery metals and, uh, just, uh, the development that has happened in it. I just want to start first with China and we've talked about, uh, you've talked about, uh, the, you know, that half a billion, almost a that's the bond.
You still. Putting in, but, um, you know, we've just seen huge numbers. We've seen a huge acquisitions, uh, from Chinese companies, just making big investments in the space. I saw some analysts talking about, uh, that you're looking at a battery output of about two thirds just coming from China. Um, given all the capital that is required for this.
Uh, and just to getting those kind of those skills. I just kind of wonder if China's really going to have the unrivaled scale. I mean, is it going to be a place where companies are going to end up sourcing most through lithium-ion batteries? Well, it's a great question. My goal in it, and it's something that policymakers around the world are struggling with because there's a, there certainly in the United States, an overt and clear concern about over-reliance on Chinese supply chains and you starting to see a significant action on the part of the OEMs in the United States, to be more careful about their sources.
Uh, I think one of the groups that is the, one of the countries that isn't recognized sufficiently for its prowess is, is South Korea. I mean, the south Koreans are going to, in the case of the United States are going. Oversize role, uh, in the supply chains for the American automobile companies. And then I think that in Europe, uh, uh, the Europeans are also very concerned about the exact same thing.
And, uh, you're seeing some strong efforts, uh, by the Europeans to invest in based, uh, cathode manufacturing, as well as cell manufacturing. And you see this in companies, excellent companies like Northolt, uh, Yuma, Corp PASF and other. Trying to significantly ramp up. And of course, part of this has to do with government's role.
Uh, you know, the government has governments have a role in all of this. They have to stimulate the demand. They have to help with some of the fundamental infrastructure. And I think that they're also starting to pick up a role in. You know, where we can provide prudent financing, we're going to do it to help stimulate the, uh, the outside China, uh, influence.
Uh, but there's no question. By the way, Michael, there is no question that the Chinese for the last 10 years have making heavy investments across the planet in securing supply. And they build significant strength in their batteries and their cells in their, everything that almost the whole shooting match.
And I think that they're going to be a formidable force, but I, I, I'm actually more optimistic right now that I have been, and I haven't been very optimistic, but I have kept coming more after. That the Europeans, the Japanese, the Koreans in the United States are all going to play a pretty muscular role in not allow for a runaway by the Chinese.
The other country wise, Australia is such a major player in the lithium space. Well, it's got the, it's got the world's best spa drumming. It's you know that out there in the, in the Western part of the country, that it mother nature blessed the country with the. Very shallow tabular, large spot germane, which produces.
It's sorry, you're going to have to debts before you get too technical James. I help us out with rocks granite type rocks that hold lithium. It's called spodumene and it's just the rock formation. That's what we call it. But the hard rocks in, in Western Australia. Uh, for lithium are particularly outstanding, the best in the world by a long shot.
Uh, and the, in the, you know, the Australians have such a great mining culture, I mean, in capability. So they, they not only had the great rocks, but they have to know how and the capabilities. And I think the other thing, by the way, that is maybe less known about the importance of Austria. Is Australia is a very, has a very effective capital market.
Uh, it's, it's, it's a very prudent and thoughtful capital market, but it, it supports the mining industry almost like no place else. And so they not only in the Australian base lithium, but a case like aura Cobra, my. Company that I was a chairman of, uh, you know, I mean, it's in south America, you know, they're, they're all over the place.
And so, uh, th th th they play an oversized role. I wish, of course, I wish that the Australians government would, would become more proactive as it relates to the. The, uh, climate change issue and, and start being more supportive of the electric car revolution that's coming. Uh, but that's just a, you know, opinion of mine.
Uh, but, uh, but, but I, I admire the Australians enormously for what they've done. As I say, uh, we've just seen a real roller coaster ride with lithium. Uh, just, that was so beaten up, uh, during the pandemic. And now you're seeing just as flurry of M and a deals. You see automakers are finally getting involved.
James you've been in this for a while. Is there any major industry trend that you've noticed? Are you keeping your eye on. I of course, you know, I have been actively daily involved at it for 14 years, which is, makes me one of the old, old, old people in the industry. Um, I think the thing that I'm most focused on right now is how, uh, OEMs the big automobile companies around the world.
Are no longer taking a passive position of saying, well, we're just going to get our, our batteries from X company. They're, they're, they're, that's not enough for them anymore. And so I think across the world, we're seeing. Thoughtful leaders in the OEMs, like for instance, a great example. This is the leader of Ford, you know, who flat out, came out and was very explicit the other day about it.
I so admire that his, his courage to speak up about the full supply chain. So I think now what's happening is the, the guys that are actually in the end, the users. Okay. They've said, we're not going to let laissez-faire, you know, supply chains that just happen magically by. Uh, ruled the day. There's too much at stake.
And now that they're making many billions of dollars investments, they want to know from end to end how they're going to get their materials, how they're going to get their CAFOs, how they're going to get their cells, how they're going to make their packs, how they're going to put them in the cars. It's really the way it's going to be.
Now. I don't think they're going to own that whole supply chain. But they're going to have a structured supply chain and it's going to be close to the markets that they are in the markets that they serve. This is a huge initiative across the globe. And also of course, the continued importance of, uh, the environmental integrity of how these materials are made.
So I think that those are the two big things, but I say the supply chain is the one that's caught my strong attention over the last couple of years. James Calloway. Thanks for speaking with Kitco. It's great to be with you. Thank you for having me. He's James Calloway, executive chairman by an ear. My name's Mike McCray, and you are watching Keiko mining go news.
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