The Ioneer Ltd (ASX: INR) share price achieved a record high today following a positive announcement by the emerging lithium-boron company.
During the first hour of market open, Ioneer shares touched an all-time high of 53.5 cents. However, some investors were quick to take profit off the table, sending the company's shares back down.
At the time of writing, Ioneer shares are up 4.08% to 51 cents.
What did Ioneer announce?
According to today's release, Ioneer advised it has awarded a major engineering design and equipment supply contract to Veolia Water Technologies (Veolia).
A leading specialist in water treatment, Veolia Water is a subsidiary of the Veolia group. The company designs and delivers drinking water and wastewater treatment plants as well as water treatment equipment.
Under the agreement, Veolia will begin work on a final detailed engineering design for the development of Ioneer's Rhyolite Ridge Lithium-Boron Project. This will include using evaporation, crystallisation and dewatering equipment.
The contract, however, has been awarded on a limited notice to proceed basis. Essentially, this means Veolia will receive short notice on each stage of the project should it be given the green light.
Both Ioneer and Veolia have been working together since 2018 to demonstrate the feasibility of the process design. Veolia has conducted laboratory testing and simulated operations of key units consisting of clarification, ion exchange purification, evaporation and crystallisation.
Ioneer managing director Bernard Rowe commented:
We are very pleased to award this engineering design and equipment supply contract to Veolia, the largest supply contract we will award in the development of Rhyolite Ridge.
We have been working closely with Veolia over the past three years during the pilot plant and DFS phases and have developed a strong relationship and mutual respect. Veolia is a recognised leader in process design and engineering, with direct experience in developing solutions for lithium processing facilities. Veolia's experience and capabilities are important to meet required purity standards in our production facilities.
Ioneer share price summary
During the past 12 months, Ioneer shares have accelerated by more than 380%, with year-to-date gains above 80%.
On valuation grounds, Ioneer commands a market capitalisation of roughly $961.6 million, with 1.9 billion shares on issue.
