Welcome to the Annual General Meeting of Ioneer Limited. My name is James Calaway, Executive Chair of the company. As we have a quorum, I now declare the meeting open. Today's meeting is being held both in person as well as online via the Lumi platform. This allows shareholders, proxies, and guests to attend the meeting virtually and to ask—
Sorry, I dropped you.
Okay.
But we're looking to start on time pretty much now.
Start over?
Sorry. Luke, you can talk to me right now. We're not live to the house yet.
Okay. I need to start over, okay? I thought I was live. Okay.
Okay.
Peter, are we live?
We are live. Go.
Hello. Welcome to the annual general meeting of Ioneer Limited. My name is James Calaway, Executive Chair of the company. As we have a quorum, I now declare the meeting open. Today's meeting is being held both in person as well as online via the Lumi platform. This allows shareholders, proxies, and guests to attend the meeting virtually and to ask questions and submit votes. I will ask our company secretary, Ian Bucknell, to provide instructions for our online attendees. Ian?
Thanks, James. I'm assuming that the microphone's on. Yep. Thanks, James. I'll just quickly run through the slides that'll be popping up on the screen. The first of which is, if you're online and looking to ask a written question, you simply need to select the messaging icon, type your question into the box towards the top of the page, and press the send button. It's getting easier each year, is the good news on that. If you want to ask a verbal question, you just simply click on the request to speak button, confirm your name, and enter the topic of your question. Submit your details and select join queue to be connected, and then to vote, shortly the chair will declare voting open, and when he does so, you'll see the resolutions and voting options appear on the screen.
To cast your vote, simply select one of the options. Your vote is automatically recorded. There is no need to press a submit or enter button, and you can change that vote right up until the end of the meeting when the chair declares voting closed. For those in the room, when you entered, you should have been given a card. It'll be different colors: green for voting, that's if you still haven't yet voted. Yellow for non-voting, and white if you're a visitor. If you do not have the right card, please raise your hand. Let yourself be known to us, and one of the boardroom team will come and sort you out with the right card. I think everyone seems to have the right card. Only people holding a green voting card or a yellow non-voting card are entitled to ask questions through the meeting.
In terms of addressing questions in the meeting, we will take any questions from the floor of the meeting first, then the written online questions, and then we'll move to the audio online questions. Hopefully, that's clear. I'll pass you back to James. James.
Thank you, Ian. I'll now provide the Chairman's address to the meeting. It is once again.
Declare the voting open.
Oh, yes. I will declare the voting open. All right. So I will now provide the Chairman's address to the meeting. It is once again my great privilege and honor to welcome you to Ioneer's 2024 annual shareholders meeting. I had hoped to be with you in person, but the urgent workload in the U.S. necessitated my being virtual for this meeting. What a remarkable year it has been. As of October 24th, Rhyolite Ridge is permitted in the United States on federal land. Our team has worked for years to find a win-win for our project and for biodiversity. The Department of the Interior has now issued a rare Record of Decision saying they agree, and by working together, we have succeeded in finding that win-win for America.
This permit materially de-risked Rhyolite Ridge and allows our company to quickly move to a final investment decision and shortly thereafter full notice to proceed. It is important to pause here and take in the importance of what I've just said. Our future depended on this outcome. It is also critical to understand that Rhyolite Ridge is no ordinary project. We are not producing concentrates dependent on Chinese converters to go into batteries. We are producing lithium and boric acid chemicals in the United States at a very competitive all-in cost of production. Our project will produce 22,000 tons of lithium carbonate and 140,000 tons of boric acid per year for many, many years. This will quadruple current U.S. domestic lithium production and make Ioneer the third largest global producer of boric acid, also a very important material.
Both production streams are significant, and both are understood to be vital to domestic supply chains and security. By achieving Record of Decision, we have cleared the last major U.S. federal permit step and can now advance towards construction decision. Our engineering is 70% complete, meaning that we are able to begin construction right away. We're also close to finalizing our Class 2 CapEx and OpEx estimates, which will provide a high-confidence understanding of our cost. All of this means we are now able to solely focus on finalizing our low-cost capital DOE loan package to work with Sibanye-Stillwater to finalize the equity partner agreement and procure any additional funding that might be required. Over the past six months, we believe the market has begun to recognize the importance of Rhyolite Ridge.
Our share price, although like others off on an unreasonably low price, has risen at one of the fastest rates of our peers. While we believe we are still undervalued, we anticipate the market continues to re-rate us as we take an FID decision, complete the funding of the project, and move forward into construction and later operations. With our permit in hand, we believe we have put strong and durable value around what we believe to be the best lithium project in North America. My wife has a front-row seat to the efforts of our team has made to get to this seminal moment. She's a wonderful and deeply practical partner to me. She often asks me the key question. She says, "James, when are you going to put sticks in the ground?" That is, i.e., start construction. Nice way to say start construction. And I have an answer.
Assuming we and Sibanye take an FID, Notice to Proceed should be achievable by Q1 2025. To be able to fully start, one must have done the detailed work only Ioneer has achieved. How do you pour foundations and build field structures until you have complete detailed load analysis? And how do you have that until you have equipment fully specified and designed? You cannot without undue risk. I tell my wife that for these reasons and others, we are confident that we will be able to be the first new production in America and tell her with confidence that the sticks are going in the ground in 2025, with first production arriving in 2028. Looking more broadly, we are all aware that during this fiscal year, lithium markets have been under sustained downward pressure. Some projects have been put on care and maintenance, while others have been canceled.
Current market sentiment continues to be negative, though for the past few months, a price floor appears to be forming. The only projects moving forward are those deemed top tier and with some form of advantage to the run-of-the-mill projects. Having been engaged in this industry for almost two decades, I've experienced times of overexuberance where prices supported everything and times when most projects were not viable. This volatility means that low operating cost projects are much more valuable than those dependent on sustained high lithium prices. This volatility creates overreactions in both directions, however. The current severe downturn will defer weak projects but also lead to supply shortages in the coming years. I'm concerned about our industry's ability to operate in such conditions, particularly given the capital intensity and time it takes to bring production on stream.
It is incumbent on both producers and users to better communicate and develop contractual structures that provide reasonable floors and ceilings to incentivize rational economic behavior. I, for one, continue to be very optimistic about the future demand for lithium chemicals. Not only will electric cars improve and find ever greater market share, but lithium will also play a rather important role in a rapidly growing battery electric storage system sector needed to address renewable intermittency problems critical to addressing climate change. As for our project, we have a steady cost of production that greatly benefits from having a large co-production of boric acid that continues to have high stability pricing to help offset dips in lithium prices. As we have said for a long time, our project greatly benefits from its unique boric acid co-production characteristics. In summary, what a year it has been.
We entered this new fiscal year strong and focused on putting sticks in the ground. Our team is cohesive and determined. I believe it is now our time to shine. I want to take a moment to thank Bernard Rowe, our able CEO, for his tireless effort and ingenuity. I have to just sort of go off script here. It's really hard to explain where his energy comes from. I mean, back and forth across the world, working day and night, always working focused on the right things and working for all of our shareholders. He really deserves a hand from all of us shareholders. I also want to thank. Yeah, I really think we should do that. Yeah. Thank you very much. I also want to thank the entire executive team for having the will to bring us to this important moment.
And finally, I want to thank our terrific board. I'm honored to be a part of this remarkable group. Their wisdom and commitment to our stated principles is essential to our growth as an organization. And finally, to you, our shareholders. Thank you for your long trust in Ioneer. We know the journey has at times been difficult, and it's taken longer than any of us had expected. But you never gave up on us, and we enter the brighter times. We will always remember your support. Thank you all very much for your time. And I do have one last thing to say. Unfortunately, it's not in the written prepared remarks, but before closing, I felt that I'd let you know that Ioneer is aware that earlier today, a lawsuit was filed by the Center for Biological Diversity against the Bureau of Land Management concerning our permitted project.
I just want everybody to know that such a suit by CBD is routine and has been expected. Ioneer has spent years diligently working with Esmeralda County, Nevada, and the federal regulatory authorities, the Fish Lake Valley community, and tribal nations to sustainably develop our Rhyolite Ridge lithium-boron project. That fact is reflected in the recent Record of Decision issued by the BLM following an extensive multi-year permit process. We are confident that the BLM will prevail against this lawsuit. Ioneer intends to intervene and vigorously defend BLM's careful and meticulously thorough permitting process. We do not expect this lawsuit to materially or meaningfully affect our proposed development timeline. Sorry, I had to add that, but it just literally happened about an hour and a half ago, and I felt it was very important that we be the first ones to tell you about this. It's completely expected.
We're prepared, and we think that there is no basis to their accusations. So with that, I'd like to turn it over to our able Managing Director to make his director's presentation. Bernard.
Thank you, James. Welcome, everyone. Pleasure to be able to make it back to Sydney in time for the AGM, be in front of you in person, and also to come home. As I promised a few people recently, I wouldn't come back to Sydney or Australia until I had a Record of Decision. So pleased, I was able to put that in my bag and fly back and arrive back here on Monday. Before I give my presentation, we're just going to put up a couple of other slides just to sort of a little bit of housekeeping. So obviously, the presentations, James, and mine are preceding the formal part of the meeting, the voting. But slide five, please. Yeah. So it's just firstly an agenda. So we're doing obviously one and two and now moving into three.
The formal part of the actual meeting will come after my presentation. You have the ability to ask, rather, and we will answer any questions you have during that process. The next slide, please. I also just, unfortunately, not all of us are here today in person, but I did want to just introduce you to the rest of the team on the board side. You've met James, and you all know James. He has been here in the past face-to-face, but unfortunately, wasn't able to do that this year for other commitments. We have Alan Davies on the call with us today, non-executive director, Rose McKinney-James, Margaret Walker, and Stephen Gardiner is here with us in person. Thank you very much to James, Alan, Rose, Margaret, and Stephen for their ongoing guidance and support for the company.
It's absolutely invaluable to have such a depth of experience on a board of such a young and emerging company. And then also, I'd like to just introduce the executive team who were instrumental in delivering everything that we've done on this project over the last eight years. Ian Bucknell, our CFO here at the front. Matt Weaver, Vice President of Engineering and Operations. Chad Yeftich, Vice President for Corporate Development and External Affairs. Ken Coon, Vice President for Human Resources. And finally, Yoshio Nagai, Vice President of Commercial Sales and Marketing, also affectionately known as the Boron Guru. So thank you. Next slide, please. Oh, yes. And is there a slide to introduce Scott? No. Okay. So in addition, we welcome Scott Nichols from EY, the company's auditor. Scott will be rotating off as our audit partner at the end of this meeting.
We sincerely thank Scott for all of the work he has done with us alongside us over the past five years. Thank you, Scott. And we also welcome Siobhan Hughes, who will take over as our new audit partner. So thank you to the EY team and particularly Scott. We recognize your efforts. Okay. I think I'm in the clear now, and I've done my housekeeping. So I've got a presentation I'm going to show. That's actually a picture of Rhyolite Ridge. People think it's flat, by the way. Some of you have been out there, but I think the impression that when you do go out there that's so different than what you have conjured up in your mind is that it's not flat at all. It's actually quite rugged. And I know Ian Davies, who's one of our shareholders here today, and thank you for coming along.
And he was out there recently, and I think you'll attest to that, that it actually looks nothing like you would expect it. Okay? And you can actually think about the rocks and the processing and everything else about this project actually is exactly what you would not expect. And that's what makes it such a special deposit. It's really the unexpected. It's what people assumed that it was but have subsequently been proven to be wrong. The topography, the geology, the mineralization, the way we can process it, completely surprising to everybody. Okay. Next slide, please. Please read the disclaimer in your own time. Next slide, please. Okay. So what differentiates Ioneer? I mean, first and foremost, it actually is the fact that we've got this lithium and boron deposit. It's unlike any other lithium deposit in the world.
There is not one other one anywhere on this planet that's the same as Rhyolite Ridge. And people have looked for these deposits for many years, a century. Okay? And yet there has not been another one found like this. And it's that mixture of boron and lithium that really differentiates this project. And from that starting point, everything else has sort of filtered down and fallen into place for us. So firstly, permitting. We are the only lithium project that's been permitted during the current Biden administration. As you know, we received the Record of Decision last week. For those who are unfamiliar with what Record of Decision is, it's really the end of the permitting process, what's called NEPA. There's a Mine Plan of Operation that we submit and gets modified through that NEPA process.
At the end of it, there's a Record of Decision of whether or not there is approval of that Mine Plan of Operation. So we got the approval of that Mine Plan of Operation last week contained in that Record of Decision. I'm going to talk a little bit later about the historical significance of that because it is very significant. Offtakes completed. Many of you know this already. We have offtakes in place on the lithium with Ford through the joint venture with SK, the Blue Oval, Toyota Panasonic joint venture, which is known as Prime Planet, and EcoPro, one of the largest cathode makers in the world, certainly the largest, I think, highest nickel cathode maker in the world outside of China. They're a Korean company. Engineering, again, you've seen this many times before.
This project stands alone in the United States in terms of the level and sophistication and comprehensive approach to the engineering. And we're at 70% design complete. There are no other lithium projects in the country that can say that. And we've done everything, including a full simulation pilot plant, to take it from rock to lithium chemicals. And you'll hear me say this later, but there is not another hard rock mine anywhere in the world for lithium where they take it from rock to lithium chemicals, hard rock. So this is a first globally. The debt, $700 million loan commitment from the U.S. government, U.S. Department of Energy Loan Programs Office. I'm going to talk a little bit more about that later as well. But that's in place. It was a conditional commitment.
Obviously, the permitting was a big condition, but there are some other conditions, and we're in the process of ticking those off. Equity funding. We have the deal that we struck several years ago now with Sibanye-Stillwater for $490 million. So between the debt and the equity from Sibanye-Stillwater, we have circa $1.2 billion in place as conditional debt and equity. And importantly, we have this dual revenue, but we also have a very, very large resource, and you'll soon see a very large reserve. We're about to update the reserve. It was 60 million tons when we did it in 2020. It's going to be a lot larger than that when we come out with it. It's close to being finished.
But that means that this project could be mining at the rate of 2.5 million tons, which is what we're proposing in stage one for circa 100 years. That sort of number. That's what you're talking about. So that also means it has a lot of growth potential in the future. Next slide, please. I'm going to jump over the next couple pretty quickly. I certainly don't want to go through six years of permitting with you today, but maybe I had a drink at the end of the day. But why we want to show this, okay, is that it is a very, very staged, rigorous process. Okay? And people think you hear people say it takes forever, and you also hear people say it's rushed and too short. Okay? But it's neither of those things. It's a very organized, regimented, methodical process. Okay?
And it starts with two years of baseline studies. So we drilled the first hole at Rhyolite Ridge in December 2016. We started those baseline studies in 2019. So 2019 and 2020 were really just doing environmental baseline studies that would allow us to prepare and submit a mine plan of operation. And then there's various steps that you go through beyond that. But ultimately, it's that NEPA process the last couple of years where that gets analyzed, it gets reviewed, it gets modified and molded to be ultimately a better project for everybody, for Ioneer, but for the community, for the tribes, tribal nations, for all stakeholders. And that's why it takes six years. I will point out some of you probably heard me say this last week. The average to permit a mining project in the United States is 16 years.
We did it in six years, eight years from the very first drill hole, but six years of permitting process, and we did it with an endangered species listing in the middle of that. No one has ever done that before. So again, it's because of the Ioneer team that we're able to do that and the way in which we approached the whole process. Next slide, please, Ian. I know I better speed up. Terrific partners. That's the starting point. Okay? Early engagement, willingness to engage, discuss, compromise, but you need the right technical people with you to begin with. We've got an amazing in-house technical team, but we're also incredibly well supported by our partners, and it's that technically led approach that led to our early signing of offtake agreements.
And it's also then led to the commitment from Sibanye-Stillwater and the Department of Energy for the loan funding. Next slide, please. So we're ready. Engineering-wise, we're ready to start construction. That Caterpillar truck, 150 tonner, that's an autonomous Caterpillar truck, and that's one of ours. So that's actually at the testing grounds at the moment in Arizona where they're putting it through its paces, which they do for about a year before they let them loose. But that's a fully autonomous Caterpillar 150-ton 785 truck. Next slide, please. So the next two slides are really just a reflection on what this actually means in the overall context of the United States, but even beyond that, really. So the picture on the right is some rocks. Okay? Some crushed-up rocks.
The top photo is what the rocks look like when you crush them down to about 20 millimeters or three-quarters of an inch. The photo on the bottom is what that same rock looks like after you've leached the lithium and boron out using a mixture of sulfuric acid and water. They actually don't look very different. The rock does not break down when you leach it. Okay? Now, there isn't another lithium deposit in the world that looks and behaves like that when you leach it. The reason is this unique mineralogy now. That has lots and lots of implications. One of them is that it allows you to put a chemical processing plant at the mine site because all other hard rock mines, they make a concentrate, they send it somewhere else to convert the concentrate into the metal or the lithium chemical.
It needs a lot of energy to do that. Here, we can do it with no energy, just sulfuric acid and water. It happens in three days of leaching. This unique lithium and boron sort of makeup of this deposit, as I said, there isn't another one like it in the world. It allows us to process this material in such an advantageous way that nothing else comes close to it. The revenue split is also something that differentiates Rhyolite Ridge. Many lithium mines have small byproduct credits. Not all of them, but many of them do. I'm not aware of any that have a co-product that accounts for between 30% and 40% of the revenue. That's what you're talking about with the boric acid.
So not only does the boron dictate and provide us with this wonderful advantage on how we can process this material, it also contributes significantly to the economics like no other lithium deposit in the world. It is truly the only vat leach or slash heap leachable. Vat leach and heap leach are essentially the same thing. It's coarsely crushed and leach the rock with acid and extract the lithium and boron material and make them into the chemicals. There is not another one globally. And as I've already mentioned, this is the first lithium project permitted by the Biden administration, which is also a wonderful achievement. Next slide, please. And I am, of course, pointing here to when this is in production in 2028. This is what Rhyolite Ridge will mean for the United States. It's the first new lithium production that will be in 2028 in 60 years.
There has been no new lithium production in the U.S. since the 1960s. It'll be the first new boron production in the United States in over 100 years. It will quadruple U.S. lithium production, which is from one mine and about 5,000 tons. So it'll quadruple that. And it'll account for about 5% of projected demand in the U.S. Okay? So there's still a lot more lithium that the United States is going to need to find. But the starting point is almost zero when you consider that 5,000 tons. So this will become an incredibly important sort of cornerstone to that whole strategy around domestic U.S. lithium production. It will add 26% to the U.S. boron production. There's one big boron mine in the United States, as many as you would know, Boron, California. There's one other small one. But this will add 26% to that.
And it will also then account for about 17% of U.S. domestic demand for boron. So again, it'll be a very important contributor to feeding that growing demand in the United States. Thanks, Ian. Next slide, please. So next steps. Close out the conditional loan. So we have a conditional loan for $700 million. I think we were offered that in the very early part of 2023. So it's a couple of years old now. So we are refreshing that. We're meeting the conditions precedent. We are looking at upscaling it as part of our strategy because it was done a couple of years ago. So that makes sense. We are also closing the conditional commitment from Sibanye-Stillwater for the $490 million. Now, the way that $490 million will work is that there will be a joint venture company and that's already established, sitting there ready. Ioneer contributes the project.
Sibanye-Stillwater contributes the $490 million. And then we're 50/50 joint venture partners. So that's an important thing. And I'm going to explain why with my next point. We're going to procure any additional funding required. So the CapEx in the feasibility study was around $800 million. We gave some guidance around the time that we did the DOE loan of about $1.2 billion. Hence, we put in place $1.2 billion. Obviously, we've also said that it's increased from that time till now. A couple of years have gone by. And of course, we'll be in 2025 soon. So there will be a funding gap, and we're going to have to address that. Okay? But the levers we have are the DOE loan. Okay? So we think there's an opportunity there.
There's been recent transactions by the Department of Energy under the Loan Programs Office, exactly the same funding that we're tapping into. And the debt to equity that's been awarded to projects like Thacker Pass is significantly higher than what Ioneer was able to achieve several years ago. So we think there's a very, very good opportunity there for us to increase that. And then anything that's still any gap that exists, as I mentioned, it's a 50/50 joint venture with Sibanye-Stillwater. So it'll be met 50/50 by the two partners. The construction to start in 2025, James mentioned that. There's a lot of work to do, okay, between now and the end of the year.
And there's a lot of things to put in place, contracts that we've either some of which are already negotiated and signed but have to be executed into the second phase, but other contracts to be signed, orders to be placed, long lead items, these sorts of things. All that takes time. You can't click your fingers and have it all happen at once. So that's why we need the first half, really, of next year to do all the preparation around that. And then construction commencing sort of towards the middle of the year, so six months into 2025, and then a 30-month build time. So that takes us through until the end of 2027 and first production in 2028. Thank you. I think I'm going to end there with my slides. Just last one, please. Next slide. Yeah. I've covered off all of these things.
So I just want to finish by thanking again everybody, the wonderful board that I've mentioned and my executive team, but all the people at Ioneer. I mean, we really do have a super team. I was over in Washington, sorry, in Reno last week. And one of the things that sort of came out really clearly with the ceremony that was held by the Bureau of Land Management was that they were extremely complimentary of Ioneer and the team, of the way we conducted ourselves and went about that through that whole process about listening, engaging, willingness rather than confrontational approach, which often happens. We did not take that approach, and we really received strong accolades for that. There were very senior people from Washington at that ceremony. They flew over specifically for it.
And they are holding Ioneer and Rhyolite Ridge up as the example for other companies to follow in terms of getting through that permitting process. So thanks all to my team and the board, and I'll hand back. Thank you. Sorry. I forgot the most important of all, of course, the shareholders, of which I'm one, as I'm pleased to say. But thank you very much for your patience, your ongoing unwavering support. It really makes the whole thing worthwhile when you can come and reflect and discuss the achievements with such a great group of shareholders. So I really do appreciate that. Thank you. Back to James. All right. James will hand it back to you. Yeah.
All right. Thank you very much. I remind shareholders and proxy holders that you have the ability to ask questions via the Lumi platform or from the floor of the meeting.
We will hold questions specific to the resolution to the formal part of the meeting. Are there any questions in the room on the chairman's address, the managing director's presentation, and more generally on the management of the company?
Sorry. We've got a question. One moment.
This is a question for you. Looking forward, what is the biggest risk going forward, and what's your assessment of that risk? Thanks, Peter.
Sorry. I think it's probably in the execution of the project now. I mean, we feel that I mean, we pay a lot of attention to risk, okay, engineering, permitting, geology, all of it. But I think we're feeling pretty comfortable around how we've de-risked those, I think, risks that immediately jump to mind when you think of a new mining project. And so I think we're now in the stage of the risk is around execution.
And we've done a lot of work on that as well. But this is a big project. There's 500 people that are going to be required during construction. It's in a very rural, sparsely populated part of Nevada, as those who've been there know. And so, yes, I think I would say it's around that. Now, how do we manage that and mitigate it? I mean, one of the strategies has been, well, we're not building it. We're using an EPCM, engineering contractor, to manage the construction. And that's Fluor. And we've been working alongside Fluor for five years. So they're intimately familiar with the project. It does cost more when you use an EPCM. However, that's one of the ways in which we've addressed that construction risk and execution risk.
People, I mean, finding people, the 500, but also beyond that in production, we will need about 350 people at this project. So that itself is a formidable task to recruit that number of people. But again, we've been planning on that for some years.
Additional to any risk that you see both in the receipt of the Department of Energy loan and also the timing of the construction or the process with the impending election in the U.S. and whether the loan itself and then the impact of the timing on the project with that coming up.
Yeah, sure. They're good questions. And James, you might want to chime in on this one as well. But I think the first part of it, so the question was the risk to the loan, closing the loan as it relates to the looming election.
We have a conditional commitment already, and that provides, right from the outset, a high level of certainty around being able to access those funds, and we're very confident on meeting all the conditions. I mean, the big one, of course, was permitting. There are others, and we're working on closing those out, but do we think that we can close all of them out? Yes, we do. In terms of the sort of the election and which way that's going to go, of course, we don't know, but what we do know is there's strong bipartisan support for development of critical mineral projects within the United States. This project, given we just drilled the first hole in 2016, we've actually been through three administrations: the tail end of the Obama administration, a full term of the prior Trump administration, and now Biden.
And so what we've actually seen firsthand with this project, with the electeds that we deal with, both in Nevada but also in Washington, is there is very, very strong support around the development of these projects, around having secure, stable, long-term supply, energy security, domestic manufacturing, or onshoring of domestic manufacturing has very strong bipartisan support. That's what this project is. It's not just a mine that's going to dig up raw material and send it somewhere. It's a big chemical processing plant. So I think there is very strong bipartisan support. So we're not overly concerned around the closing out the DOE loan. But I can assure you, like with everything we're doing, we're pushing as hard as we possibly can to close everything as quickly as we can. And we're trying to do all of that by the end of the year.
James, do you want to add to that?
Yeah. I was just going to add that I agree with everything you've said. Our objective, of course, is, and it's a demanding objective, but I think it has a good chance to be achieved, which is to get this whole deal closed up and finished and firm and binding final contracts before the change of administration on January 20th. Our advisors and everyone we work with strongly suggest, as Bernard said, that if for whatever reason we can't make that deadline, that there is bipartisan support for our project. I think, though, in reality, if the Harris comes in, there'll be less change of personnel. And so the hiccup in time would be minimal to close if we have to go past the change of administration.
I think that we will get support from the Trump Administration, but it could be that it could present a few months' additional delay because of such a significant change in the people at the table. I agree with Bernard that we believe both parties will support what we're doing. I think we have a pretty darn good chance of getting this thing closed out before the change of administration. We just don't know who's going to win this. If anybody says they do, they're just telling you a fib because nobody in this country knows who's going to win this election until we see the results here next week. I'd say that's my answer.
Yeah. I'll just add one last thing. I said strong bipartisan support. We have continued to engage with both sides regardless of who's in power.
So even during the four years of Biden administration, we've still had very strong engagement with the other side of politics and with the governor of Nevada as well, who's Republican. So we feel that we're well placed there, and we don't see it as a large risk other than short-term delay is a possibility, as James has said. Any other questions?
Yep. Let me just bring them over to you.
When you come to fund the gap, will you offer that funding to all shareholders equally on the same basis? I think it's pretty. Well, I'm asking because the placement at AUD 0.18 in April was not offered to all shareholders, which disappointed some of us because it's the only way to subscribe capital to the company direct.
I know the price was then AUD 0.15, but I think it's important to know that you'll, particularly for long-term shareholders, treat us all as equal. Thank you.
Well, we absolutely do try and treat all shareholders equally. In that case, that was a placement. It wasn't a rights issue, and it wasn't done at a discount, which was extremely rare in the lithium industry, particularly this year. So I think the board made the decision that that was the prudent way to approach a capital raising in that environment. And the fact that we weren't doing it at any discount, I think, made it very fair to all shareholders because you could buy the stock at the same price or even less before and after, actually. And in terms of forward-looking, I mean, we will always look at all the options available to us.
We're not sure yet what the gap is going to be. As I said, the gap, it's not just going to be filled by this solution or that solution. It'll be a combination of things. It'll be the debt with the DOE. It'll be the partnership, joint venture contributions between Ioneer and Sibanye. And if Ioneer needs to contribute as well, then we will look at that at the time. And depending on the quantum, we would then appropriately sort of execute that. But it's a bit premature to say exactly how we would do it. I understand all of that. But I'm just wanting to make sure that I'm a long-term holder. And I just want to try to make sure that I'm treated in a way that's the same as other shareholders.
That's my only point.
Yes. Yeah. Well, we absolutely. Yeah.
Sorry. You go, James.
I was going to say we thought that we were working in the best interest of all our shareholders. And I'm a long-term shareholder too. And I appreciate all of our long-term shareholders. But at the time that we did that particular offering, if we had gone in just into the regular markets, everybody was expecting a 20%-25% discount, which would, of course, have more dilution to all of us shareholders. And we were able to execute that. I think it was the first one that had been done at market in a long time. And it was helpful to us and the industry and certainly to all of our shareholders. So that was our approach to that particular matter.
I hope you appreciate how much better that was than going and taking a 20%-25% hit in a market at the time that had very little floor underneath it. Things are improving there. There's a little bit of buoyancy at the bottom here in the lithium industry. But at the time that we needed to do it, I would say that was a very treacherous time. And I was extremely pleased that we were able to do that for all the shareholders. Another question?
Yeah. I'd like to applaud your decision made then, but also going forward. I hope we continue making the right decisions. I'd like to point out another company called Latin Resources that sold a company at the bottom around that time when the share price used to be double ours. So I get what you said.
I'm just worried in the future that there will be predators taking advantage of all the work you've done over the years. I was just wondering what measures you might be taking or might have taken against because, James, we go way back. I was with Galaxy as an advisor. You were the chairman of the corporation. They patched together these two also-ran companies, I would say, and then they swallowed a real sort of company that's been there 60 years ago, Livent. And then they now got a $10 billion takeout. I don't hate that kind of thing happening. But to get there, you also have to have a lot of things put in place. On the other hand, if someone came for us prematurely, you might not get a result like that, right?
So I just want to hear what the corporate strategy is in terms of how to take advantage of this super sort of mega growth that the lithium industry is going to give us, this opportunity. How do we kind of milk this? Whether it's going to be as our own standalone company, or would it be combining with other companies? Or let's God forbid someone come for us very cheaply. And how would you deal with that if that happens? Thank you.
James and.
Well, I mean, I think that the answer to your question is there's no one answer, obviously, and you know that. But I think that the starting point for us is that all of our work and everything about our culture and our company is focused on executing and building this project ourselves. We don't spend time thinking right now about anything else but doing that.
We're not posturing ourselves to be sold. And in fact, we have vigorous defense mechanisms in place. If we need them to, if we had a hostile environment, it would have to be quite an outstanding proposal to get our board's attention because we agree that we know how rare this project is, as Bernard said. This is not a run-of-the-mill project. This is a very special project with long legs and huge opportunity for us. And we work far too hard to give it up cheaply. So we're trying to make sure that we keep our powder dry, that we have the resources that are necessary, and that we execute against our plan. And I think we're doing that. Look, everything is for sale except for your family and your loved ones and your values.
But it would have to be quite an extraordinary offer to cause us to want to divert from our total focus. Now, as far as mergers, I mean, we don't think about that either much. But there are not that many assets that we think are good enough to be merged with. There are just a few of them. And the last thing I want to do is rush in and merge with a second-rate project just to bulk up. I mean, I don't think bulking up, it turns out to be a very good idea. You take a lot of dilution and sometimes for not good reasons. I, for one, regret that I wasn't no longer the chairman of Orocobre, but I would not have done that deal with Galaxy. I thought that Orocobre should have had a better deal. So I'm a tough on this.
I think we're going to stand tall. There could be somebody come along with an offer so good that, all things considered, it's the right thing to do for our shareholders, and we'll take that into consideration. I think that's about the best way to answer it.
Yeah. I would just add just one or two other small things that, obviously, what's key for us now, apart from the execution that we're obviously very much focused on, is actually making sure that the market gives us full and fair value recognition for what we have, okay? I don't think that has been the case because of the perceived risk around permitting. We've addressed that. Now we can sort of divert some of our attention to making sure that the market understands and gives us value for the other parts of the business that are undervalued.
For example, the resource and reserves. I mean, that's why we're putting out new resource and reserve statements soon. And we've flagged that there are going to be significant increases from what we had before, particularly around the reserve. And we've also flagged that we've drilled and have 12 new holes that are not in the resource that are very good grades. So we've been continuing to do things like that to make sure the market fully understands the value of what we have.
Thank you.
Other questions?
There's one more question here from the floor. Okay. Thank you.
Just taking into account the recent conversations we've been having in this room, and given the unique nature of your deposit, you've got to think almost certainly there's going to be a bid come from Ioneer from somewhere. I mean, it's almost impossible not to foresee this happening.
Do you want to comment on that at all?
In as much as I can, I think we have the best lithium boron deposit in the world. There's not many of them. And in fact, there's only two. And we've got one of them, okay? And it's better than the other one, okay? So there's only two, and we've got the best of those two. And it's in America, and it sticks out of the ground. And the flow sheet is really quite straightforward. It's taken us a lot of time and effort to actually de-risk that flow sheet. But is it complex? Does it use any new technology? No, it doesn't. So I think we've got an amazing asset. And I think that speaks for itself. The other one's on the agricultural thing as well. Yeah. It is, and it's, I think, three or four hundred meters deep.
So, no, Rhyolite Ridge really is an amazing deposit. And it's very large already, and it has the opportunity to grow much larger, which is to my point, we can get a lot of value add or recognition simply by demonstrating that. Thanks. There's another one, Bernard, I guess, called the North Basin. Has there been any further updates, or is that something that Sibanye has kind of been focused on, or are they very much focused on closing out the JV on the South Basin? Because if I recall, there was an option, I think, that they had to include that within the joint venture. Yes, that's correct, Curt. So the North Basin is excluded from the agreement with Sibanye, but they have an option that I think was 12 months from FID time of when the option would expire.
So they have one year, say, from roughly now to decide whether or not to include that. And then they would have to pay Ioneer an additional $50 million. They have not been doing anything or asking us to do anything in the North Basin, but we have been. So we've done some leach tests, which we've disclosed. It's in some of our presentations, the North Basin ore leaches in a very similar way to those photos that I showed you before. So same sort of material, very low in clay. And we've also started doing the environmental baseline studies, etc., on the North Basin. So yes, there's work ongoing. A modest amount of work, but there is work ongoing in that North Basin.
For those who are not familiar with what I'm talking about, it's a second deposit that's about four or five kilometers to the north, and we own that 100% as well.
Any last questions from the floor? There's another one here.
I read that Sibanye-Stillwater lost a case in the Welsh and English court the other day with damages yet to be awarded as a result of their failure to provide a proper mine plan. Have you got any knowledge about, A, that case, B, the prospective damages, and C, what effect that could have on Sibanye-Stillwater's ability to provide its share of the funding when it has to do so?
So I can't comment too much on the court case other than to say it related to a nickel mine in Brazil. And there was a court case, and Sibanye-Stillwater did lose that court case.
And it relates to Sibanye claiming that there was an adverse modification of economic factors, basically, that they then used to withdraw from that agreement. So they did not close on the agreement because of adverse modification of the economic material adverse impact, okay? That's what they lost. Yeah. And there will be a damages determination, and I think that'll happen in about 12 months' time. So I can't comment on what the quantum of that may or may not be. But we talk regularly to Sibanye. We have a steering committee that's been in place for more than a year. James and I talk regularly to the management. And what we understand is that Sibanye is certainly in a position to be able to fund their share of this project. That's what they've told us.
I note their share price has drastically been reduced over the last two years anyway. So I think there are some people that have a concern as to Sibanye's ability to fund its share. But if you're saying that you're in touch regularly, that's terrific.
Look, I think I'd like to answer that just slightly differently. Look, if you look at their share price, as you said, when we signed up with them, it was $18-19 billion market cap to $4 billion. So that's not a good sign. That lawsuit, some people think it could be a significant judgment. That's not helpful. The PGM market that they've been so successful in is in very distressed conditions. They have a lot of things that they're working on.
But the one thing that was interesting in our engagement with the most senior people there is that they really feel like they're working through these problems. There's a whole variety of things. For instance, it looks like they have a pretty good chance that the PGM's going to get some help from the federal government because of dumping, and of course, they just help get that new Production Tax Credit that we, by the way, are benefiting from as well, which is not trivial to them, and it's certainly important to us, so they are taking a lot of concrete actions to address what has been a very perilous, difficult time for them. What they are saying to us is that they believe they have the capacity to move forward with our project, and they're finalizing their review of the big package that we've provided to them.
I think that we don't know the answer to that. What I can tell you is that while we aren't out talking to anybody about trying to replace them because we have a contractual obligation not to do that until certain decision time frames, we are having very significant inbound interest in our project. So in the event that they, for whatever reason, can't do it, I don't want the people in our shareholders to think that we will be completely flat-footed. I don't think that'll be the case at all. But I do think that the probability is that they're going to move forward with this project. It's critical to their strategy to diversify away from PGM and gold. And I think that that's going to work in our interest. And that's what we're focused on right now.
Other questions? Ian?
I have a couple of online questions that I'm going to just go through. One of them I think we have largely answered. I'll read it out just so that our shareholder knows that it's there. If you see something different that has an angle to the question that's not been answered, then jump in. Will a Trump presidency cause a change in regulatory approach/current approvals that have been achieved to date?
Yes. The answer to that would be obviously yes. I don't know if it would have material impact on us, given that we've already gone through the very challenging process in a more environmentally focused administration. I think we've already got our permit, so I don't think that it would be significantly changed for us. Certainly, Trump has been very clear about his aversion to regulatory constraint on American production.
So I would certainly expect if he becomes president that we would be moving into a more industry-positive kind of regulatory environment. Now, whether that's the right thing to do or not, I don't know. But I think that's what you would have. And then a second question. What would cause the loan not to be finalized before the change of administration? Well, I think that the answer is we got to get the Sibanye final decision made, which they're working very diligently on with a big team. So I expect that to be fairly soon. And then just the inertia of getting it closed, all the paperwork as we move into the Christmas season. And we've had to wait for the, obviously, for the permit, which got on October 24th. So we have a sort of a tight window here. But everybody's working hard.
And I think that we have a pretty good chance of getting it done. But it's a long, hard process, and we've been at it for a long time. You could just not get there with time, or we have to go obviously, if we have to find a new partner because Sibanye makes a negative decision, then that would create a problem in getting it done in time.
Thanks, James. We've got Jackie wanting to ask another question in the room here.
Just before you do, Jackie, sorry, can I just add one last thing to James's point there about if Sibanye were not to follow through, that does not mean the DOE loan disappears. It was always worded and structured such that it was a loan to the company, to the project company, the joint venture company. So that would survive that.
Yes. Thank you for saying that.
Yeah. It's just that we would have to do a replacement, and that would take a little time. Although with the quality of the work we've done and the completeness of our analysis and package, I do think that that could be relatively compared to if you weren't in this position, we should be able to support those alternatives pretty quickly. But it probably would push us past the January 20th.
Okay. So on Sibanye, I couldn't be more pleased that we now have an equity partner because at least we won't get a paper scrip bid from that company where nobody wanted to stock, which is great. But then now you've got another group, another friends from within. You've got a couple of big oil guys, energy guys in our co-shareholders include people like John Arnold and Richard Kinder to the main guys of Enron.
I mean, they were the third biggest company in America at that point, right? So I was just wondering what James, you personally have brought them into our share registry. I just wonder you have a personal relationship with these guys. What are their intentions? I mean, these are serious guys in oil. We're in mining country, Australia, but the mining industry is tiny compared to the oil industry. All these big oil companies in America are talking about lithium now. What are these guys' plans for it? Obviously, you've had dinners. You have talks with these guys. Yeah, I know them. What are they playing here? Yeah. Please. Thank you.
Yeah. Well, thank you, Jackie. I mean, look, we're very fortunate to have solid partners like them who have made a significant investment in our company even through difficult times.
So the only thing I can say is that these are the highest caliber people that you and certainly in Texas. They're in the top of the heap, and they're all known for their quality as persons. I don't think they have any intention other than wanting to be supportive of our company as deemed fit. I know them well. They're friends. And I've not seen anything that would suggest that they would want to do anything besides what we would want them to do. And they've certainly showed great restraint. And I don't see any reason to think it would be anything other than, if anything, more than what they've already done, it would be in conjunction with what we want. But look, it's premature to say that they would be even interested in doing anything beyond what they've already done. I mean, John Arnold's public, obviously.
He's by far the largest shareholder of our company. He's an extraordinarily talented, really brilliant businessman beyond oil and gas. He's involved in many, many things. And he loves our project. And he has an investment, and it's public that that's the case. And there's one other person that isn't public who is equally outstanding. And that's a good thing for our company, Jackie. And I know them well.
I do have one more question that's come in online. And this is from Rowan. What is the timeline regarding Sibanye-Stillwater notifying Ioneer as to their desire to complete on the joint venture?
Look, there are contractual timelines. I don't think I'm at liberty to reveal that. But I don't think that they're planning to use the time available. And I think that over the next few weeks, we think we'll have an answer one way or the other.
Yeah.
And obviously, they're working alongside us with the same goal of closing the DOE loan before the change of administration. So obviously, it's all got to happen pretty quickly.
Yeah. And we've provided them with robust information in a beautiful bow tie. And it's all perfectly provided. And they've been involved with us for three and a half years. They know a lot about our project already. And they're doing the things that they need to do. But I think that we have confidence that they're doing it in a timely way. And they will make a decisive decision one way or the other. If they can't do it for whatever reason, which we don't think is going to happen, but if they for whatever reason can't, we think that they'll be decisive about that and give us time. So that's all we can say at this point.
I think we've exhausted all questions, both in the room and online, unless anyone's got anything.
Thank you very much. Okay. So I think that we will now move forward with the formal part of the meeting. The notice of meeting was lodged with ASX on 1 October 2024. It has been sent to all members and can be found on the Ioneer's website. I will take the notice of meeting as read. All voting today will be conducted by way of a poll. As already noted, voting is open on all resolutions. For each item of business, the company secretary will display the full resolution to be considered and the total number of valid proxies received in respect of each resolution.
In accordance with the proxy form, which formed part of the AGM pack, I intend as chairman to vote all eligible undirected proxies in favor of resolutions one through 16. We'll now move to the first item of business as set out in the notice of meeting to receive and consider the consolidated financial statements for the financial year ended 30 June 2024. The company's financial statements and reports are taken as released to the ASX in the annual report. Are there any questions or comments on the company's financial statements and reports or questions for the company's auditors from the floor of the meeting? Ian, are there any questions or comments? Are there any questions on the floor?
There appear to be no questions on the floor nor online.
All right. Thank you very much. Sorry, are you putting up those?
I can't see very well over there.
So there's no proxies on this first one. But as we go through, there'll be proxies.
All right. I'm sorry. You're on mute. I know. Okay. Thank you. Second resolution is to consider, and if thought fit, pass the remuneration report for the year ended 30 June 2024. The remuneration report is contained in the annual report. Note your vote on this resolution is advisory only, and it does not bind the directors of the company. The number of proxies received on this resolution are shown. Should 25% of the vote be cast against this resolution, this will constitute a first strike for the company for the purposes of the Corporations Act 2001. Are there any questions or comments on this resolution?
There appear to be no questions in the room nor online.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Given my personal interest in the next item of business, I will hand over to Bernard to take over as chair of the meeting for this resolution. Bernard?
Thanks, James. The next item of business, resolution three, is to consider and if thought fit, pass that James Calaway be re-elected as an Executive Director of the company. The number of proxies received for this resolution are shown on the screen. Your directors, excluding James, unanimously recommend this resolution. Ian, are there any questions or comments on this resolution?
There are no questions.
Thank you, Bernard.
I'm going to hand back to you, James.
Thank you very much. The next item of business resolution four is to consider and if thought fit, pass that Alan Davies be re-elected a Director of the company. The number of proxies received for this resolution are on the screen.
The directors, excluding Alan, unanimously recommend this resolution. Are there any questions or comments on this resolution in the room? Ian?
There are no questions.
Thank you very much. Again, given my personal interest in the next item of business, I will hand you back to Bernard to chair the meeting for this resolution. Bernard?
The next item of business, resolution five, is to consider and if thought fit, pass approval of performance rights to James Calaway in lieu of directors' fees on the terms and conditions set out in the explanatory memorandum. The number of proxies received for this resolution are displayed on the screen. Are there any questions or comments on this resolution?
There are no questions.
I'll hand back to you, James.
Thank you very much, Bernard.
Next item of business, resolution six, is to consider and if thought fit, pass approval of performance rights to Alan Davies in lieu of directors' fees on the terms and conditions set out in the explanatory memorandum. The number of proxies received for this resolution are displayed on the screen. Are there any questions or comments on this resolution, Ian?
No questions.
Thank you very much. The next item of business, resolution seven, is to consider and if thought fit, pass approval of performance rights to Stephen Gardiner in lieu of directors' fees on the terms and conditions set out in the explanatory memorandum. The number of proxies received for this resolution are displayed on the screen. Are there any questions or comments on this resolution, Ian?
There are no questions, James.
Thank you.
The next item of business, resolution eight, is to consider and if thought fit, pass approval of performance rights to Rose McKinney-James in lieu of directors' fees on the terms and conditions set out in the explanatory memorandum. The number of proxies received for this resolution are displayed on the screen. Are there any questions or comments on this resolution, Ian?
There are no questions.
All right. Thank you very much. The next item of business, resolution 4E, is to consider and if thought fit, pass approval of performance rights to Margaret Walker in lieu of directors' fees on the terms and conditions set out in the explanatory memorandum. The number of proxies received for this resolution are on the screen. Are there any questions, Ian?
No questions.
.All right. Great.
The next item of business, resolution five, is to consider and if thought fit, approve the granting of 8,524,194 performance rights to Bernard Rowe on the terms outlined in the company's 2024 annual report and set out in the explanatory memorandum. The number of proxies received for this resolution are displayed on the screen. Ian, are there any questions?
No questions.
Okay. Thank you. Given my personal interest in the next item of business, I will again hand over to Bernard to take over the chair for this resolution.
The next item of business, resolution 11, is to consider and if thought fit, approve the granting of 4,236,894 performance rights to James Calaway on the terms outlined in the company's 2024 annual report and set out in the explanatory memorandum. The number of proxies received for this resolution are displayed on the screen.
Are there any questions or comments on this resolution?
There are no questions.
I'll hand back to you, James.
Thank you very much. The next item of business, resolution 12, is to consider and if thought fit, approve the refresh of the company's 15% placement capacity for the issue of 213,602,562 ordinary shares under the Australian 38.4 million equity placement issued on 6 May 2024. The number of proxies received for this resolution are displayed on the screen. Are there any questions or comments on this resolution?
There are no questions.
Okay. The next item of business, resolution 13, is to consider and if thought fit, approve the issue of equity securities under the equity incentive plan as described in the explanatory memorandum. The number of proxies received for this resolution are displayed on the screen. Are there any questions or comments on this resolution?
No questions, James.
The next item of business, resolution 14, is to consider and if thought fit, approve "potential termination benefits under the equity incentive plan to any current or future manager or executive office holder in the company on the terms and conditions set out in the explanatory memorandum." The number of proxies received for this resolution are displayed on the screen. Are there any questions or comments on this resolution, Ian?
There is a question.
Why did you feel it necessary to put that in?
Ian will answer.
So every three years, we need to refresh our employee incentive plan. And legally, they like you to separate out the two pieces. And so if an employee was a good leaver, there is the option of the board in determining whether they allow either a pro-rata portion to continue or the full amount to continue post the employment.
But it has to be separated out and refreshed every three years. Well, if we were to remove an employee, for instance, and they've been a high performer, but we're unable, we've had to downsize for some reason, and they've served two and a half years of the three years, say, of a long-term incentive, we may want to say they've done nothing wrong. We would like to award a portion of that. That's not to say that that would be the decision, but it gives the company the option to think that through.
Are there any other questions or comments on this resolution?
No other questions.
Thank you.
Next item of business, resolution 15, is to consider and if thought fit, approve that the existing proportional takeover approval provision set out in Rule 13 of the company's constitution be renewed for the further three years on and with effect from the date of this meeting. The number of proxies received for this resolution are displayed on the screen. Are there any questions or comments on this resolution?
There are no questions.
The next item of business, resolution 16, is to consider, and if thought fit, approve that the constitution of the company be amended as set out in the document tabled at this meeting describing the explanatory memorandum. The number of proxies received for this resolution are displayed on the screen. Are there any questions or comments on this resolution, Ian?
There are no questions.
All right. That concludes our discussion of the items of business.
In a couple of minutes, I will close the voting system. Please ensure that you have cast your vote on all resolutions. I will now pause to allow you time to finalize those votes. Thank you very much. Voting is now closed. The results of these votes will be released to the ASX later today. Thank you for your attendance today. We look forward to working hard on your behalf to ensure the development of Rhyolite Ridge and success of Ioneer Limited. Thank you again for your long-standing support as a shareholder. Thank you very much.