Uprooted — rare plant helps to sow seeds for demise of Sibanye’s US lithium project

Tiehm’s buckwheat proved a weed too far for Sibanye-Stillwater’s plans to invest $490-million for a 50% stake in the Rhyolite Ridge Lithium-Boron Project in the US state of Nevada – a prospective JV with Australia’s Ioneer. 

Sibanye said on Wednesday that it was pulling the plug on its plans to participate in the project – first announced in 2021 – after receiving updated technical reports. 

One of the key challenges to the project has been Tiehm’s buckwheat, a rare flowering plant endemic to the mine site. It caused delays in environmental permitting against the backdrop of campaigns to stop the mine because it would doom the plant to extinction. 

Environmental permitting for the mine was finally approved in October last year, but only after initial designs had to be changed. The was dye cast as prices for lithium – a “green metal” used for batteries in electric vehicles – tumbled from lofty peaks scaled in 2022. 

“They had to redesign the mine plan to accommodate the plant so it delayed construction and the feasibility study had to be redone,” Sibanye spokesman James Wellsted told Daily Maverick. “The plant definitely had an impact on our decision.” 

And the ruckus over the plant has not abated, with the Center for Biological Diversity challenging the environmental permitting in court.

So the combination of a problematic plant, the bottom falling out of the lithium market and other technical factors meant the numbers did not add up for Sibanye.

“In October 2024, Sibanye-Stillwater received updated project and technical information from Ioneer in the form of a technical report summary and other updated technical reports,” a Sibanye statement said. 

“Management, with the assistance of external specialists and advisors, carefully reviewed and conducted due diligence on that information, and based on the results of this work, the Board resolved not to proceed with Rhyolite Ridge as, among other things, the Project did not meet the Sibanye-Stillwater investment hurdle rates at prudent pricing assumptions.”

“Sibanye-Stillwater has communicated the decision of its Board to Ioneer.”

This is the latest setback to Sibanye’s global diversification drive and brings to mind the challenges that JSE-listed Gold Fields has faced in its at times comical bid to translocate a colony of chinchillas in the vicinity of its Salares Norte gold mine in the Chilean Andes.

Read more: Tito the chinchilla represents a milestone for Gold Fields in Chile

Environmental permitting for mining projects has become increasingly onerous globally in recent years, ironically at a time when many metals and minerals are critical for decarbonisation efforts. 

However, the administration of US President Donald Trump is taking a scythe to environmental regulations, including those in place to protect rare and endangered plant and animal species.

Campaigners on behalf of Tiehm’s buckwheat may find that it remains rooted in precarious soil. DM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REeWvTRUpMk