Australia’s Ioneer Lines Up South Korean Support for US-Based Lithium-Boron Project

Ioneer, a North Sydney-based mining company, has signed non-binding agreements with South Korea’s KIND and Hyundai Engineering for Rhyolite Ridge, its lithium-boron project in Nevada, Reuters reported on July 8.

The agreements could bring two forms of support to the project. KIND, or Korea Overseas Infrastructure & Urban Development Corporation, is considering an equity investment, while Hyundai Engineering is exploring procurement-related work, including sourcing equipment and materials for the project.

The pacts are not binding and do not guarantee funding or construction support. But they give Ioneer a possible route to South Korean capital and engineering resources for one of the most closely watched critical minerals projects in the US.

Rhyolite Ridge is being developed to mine and process lithium and boron on site. Lithium is used in electric vehicle batteries, while boron is used across semiconductors, magnets, glass, ceramics and other advanced materials.

The project sits at the meeting point of three industrial priorities: Australia’s mining expertise, South Korea’s need for reliable battery and advanced-material supplies and the US push to build more of its critical minerals supply chain at home.

Ioneer, listed in Australia and the US, says Rhyolite Ridge is its wholly owned asset and will provide a significant new source of two products needed for permanent magnets, batteries, semiconductors and other strategic applications.

The company has invested more than $220 million in the Nevada project since 2016 and completed more than 70% of its advanced engineering work. Ioneer states that Rhyolite Ridge is one of only two known deposits of this type worldwide. The other is widely identified as Rio Tinto’s Jadar project in Serbia, although Ioneer’s own materials do not name it directly.

Once operational, Ioneer expects Rhyolite Ridge to process ore into final products on-site and create 275-300 permanent positions in rural Nevada.

The agreements with KIND and Hyundai Engineering do not yet constitute a financing deal or a construction contract. According to Ioneer, there can be no certainty that binding arrangements will be reached, a caveat that matters in a sector where projects often face financing, construction, legal and commodity-price risks.

Still, the move is strategically important. KIND is a public institution under South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. Its role is to support homegrown companies in overseas infrastructure and public-private partnership projects. Hyundai Engineering brings experience in engineering, procurement and construction, areas that become critical once a mining project moves from approval to buildout.

The project already has significant backing from the US government. On January 17, 2025, the US Department of Energy closed a $996 million loan guarantee for Rhyolite Ridge. The department said the financing was aimed at supporting domestic production of lithium carbonate for electric vehicle batteries.

Rhyolite Ridge also cleared a major permitting hurdle on October 24, 2024, when the US Bureau of Land Management approved its plan of operations through its formal Record of Decision. The BLM said the project is located in Esmeralda County, Nevada, and that the Record of Decision approved it.

That approval did not end the fight over Rhyolite Ridge. Conservation and Indigenous-rights groups — the Center for Biological Diversity, the Western Shoshone Defense Project and Great Basin Resource Watch — sued within a week of the decision, arguing federal agencies had failed to protect Tiehm’s buckwheat, an endangered wildflower whose entire known population grows on the mine site. A federal judge upheld the permit on March 30, 2026, ruling that the BLM and the US Fish and Wildlife Service had complied with the Endangered Species Act, the Federal Land Policy and Management Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. The plaintiffs appealed to the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals on April 8, 2026, keeping the legal challenge active even as Ioneer works towards development.

Rhyolite Ridge already sits inside the battery and electric vehicle supply chain. The US Department of Energy said the project has offtake agreements with Ford, Prime Planet Energy & Solutions, the battery joint venture between Toyota and Panasonic, and South Korea’s EcoPro Innovation.

That US backing explains why a Nevada mine has become an APAC supply chain story. Australia brings the mining company. South Korea brings potential capital, engineering support and a large industrial base built around batteries, automobiles and advanced manufacturing. The US brings policy support and demand from companies trying to secure materials closer to home.

The signing also carried political weight. Reuters reported that the agreements were signed at the US Department of Energy’s offices in Washington D.C. Ioneer said officials from the US Department of Energy and South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport attended the ceremony, underlining that Rhyolite Ridge is not being treated as a routine mining project.

Ioneer is targeting a final investment decision in the second half of 2026, with first commercial production expected in 2029. That makes the South Korean agreements timely, but not decisive on their own. The company still has to convert interest into binding commitments while managing legal, financing and construction risks.

The larger story is not only about one mine in Nevada. It is about how supply chains for electric vehicles, batteries, chips and advanced manufacturing are being rebuilt around government support, long-term offtake agreements and cross-border partnerships.

For now, the careful reading is this: South Korea has not funded Rhyolite Ridge, and Hyundai Engineering has not taken on a binding construction role. But the agreements show how far governments and companies are willing to go to secure the materials behind the next generation of industry.