Ionic Mineral Technologies (“Ionic MT” or the “Company”), a U.S.-based vertically integrated producer of advanced materials and critical mineral solutions, today announced the results of an independent Preliminary Economic Assessment (“PEA”) for its Silicon Ridge Project in Utah County, Utah.
The PEA was prepared by SGS under the standards of U.S. Regulation S-K subpart 1300 (“S-K 1300”), with the financial model reviewed and confirmed as final by the independent Qualified Person. The PEA outlines a project with an after-tax net present value (8%) of approximately $12.1 billion, an after-tax internal rate of return of 69%, and a 1.5-year payback period.
The PEA outlines a project designed to produce a diversified portfolio of advanced materials, rare earths, and critical minerals from a single domestic resource. Rather than depending on a single commodity, Silicon Ridge is expected to generate value across alumina products, amorphous nano-silica, and 19 individually valued critical minerals and rare earth elements — each named on the U.S. Government’s critical minerals list — including gallium, germanium, rubidium, cesium, and thirteen rare earth oxides. That diversified production model underpins more than $92 billion in projected life-of-mine gross revenue over an initial 44-year operating plan.
PEA highlights (after-tax, US$, base case)
|
Metric |
Result |
Note |
|
Net present value (8% discount) |
$12.1 billion |
After-tax |
|
Internal rate of return |
69% |
After-tax |
|
Payback period |
1.5 years |
From start of production |
|
Initial capital cost |
$1.1 billion |
Includes reagent first fill |
|
NPV-to-initial-capital ratio |
~11× |
— |
|
Life-of-mine gross revenue |
$92.5 billion |
Over 44-year initial operating life |
|
Life-of-mine EBITDA margin |
~87% |
— |
|
Life-of-mine after-tax free cash flow |
~$60 billion |
Undiscounted; ≈50× initial capital |
|
Processing rate |
2.0 Mtpa halloysite concentrate |
Industry-standard (McNulty) ramp-up applied |
|
Indicated Mineral Resource |
83.2 Mt |
Maiden MRE; in-pit at a 1% Al₂O₃ cut-off |
|
Inferred Mineral Resource |
247.0 Mt |
Included in the production schedule — see cautionary note* |
|
Life-of-mine strip ratio |
0.2:1 |
Free-dig surface mining — no drilling or blasting; contractor-quoted $2.63/t mining cost |
*The PEA is preliminary in nature and its production schedule includes Inferred Mineral Resources — approximately three-quarters of the supporting Mineral Resource — which are considered too geologically speculative to have the modifying factors applied that would allow classification as Mineral Reserves. There is no certainty that the results of the PEA will be realized. Mineral Resources are not Mineral Reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability.*
Multi-product, multi-segment revenue: approximately 51% of life-of-mine value from alumina products (IonAL™) spanning high-purity, specialty, chemical-grade, and smelter-grade tiers, serving automotive, aerospace and advanced materials sectors, with the balance of LoM value from defense-critical elements such as, rubidium, cesium, gallium, germanium, rare earth oxides, plus amorphous nano-silica — a diversified product suite from a single deposit.
- Disciplined assumptions: economics apply the independent QP’s selected recoveries and prices throughout; several elements are carried at zero value in the model — including lithium, hafnium, lanthanum, and cerium; cesium, gallium, and germanium are valued at a 65% payability to reference prices, reflecting intermediate-product sales rather than refined metal, and rare earth prices are the independent QP’s selections, which in aggregate sit well below spot reference levels; approximately three-quarters of alumina tonnes are priced at chemical- and smelter-grade levels of $750/t or below, with high-purity and specialty tiers capped at defensible fixed annual volumes, and the majority of silica tonnes are valued as engineered backfill; production ramps on an industry-standard new-technology curve; and a flat 24.5% combined income tax rate is applied with no depletion or credit elections beyond a single modeled production credit. Site operating costs are estimated bottom-up at approximately $123 per tonne of feed processed — including contractor mining confirmed by quotation and a full reagent make-up allowance — with no by-product cost credits applied to any product.
- Robust across sensitivities: the PEA’s sensitivity analysis varies commodity prices, operating costs, and capital costs across ±40% ranges and applies discount rates from 5% to 10%, including combined adverse cases — with the price ranges applied to the QP’s selected prices, already at the conservative end of observable ranges, rather than to spot benchmarks; the Project’s after-tax NPV remains robust and positive across every sensitivity case evaluated.
- A deliberately measured schedule: the NPV is calculated over a 44-year initial operating life at a 2.0 Mtpa production rate — a schedule set by defensible market assumptions rather than by the resource or processing capability, which can be adjusted upward significantly by minor non-proportional scaling of CAPEX. Because later-year cash flows are heavily discounted, approximately 72% of the after-tax NPV is generated in the first 20 years of the plan; the remaining 24 years of scheduled production, and all resource beyond the plan, contribute comparatively little to the headline figure.
- No red-mud legacy: Silicon Ridge’s clay-based hydrometallurgical route does not generate the caustic red-mud tailings that characterizes conventional Bayer-process alumina refining from bauxite — a structural environmental advantage for a domestic alumina producer. Rather, the native process is clean, with virtually no tailings waste and favors the production of high purity alumina specialties.
- District-scale growth: the maiden Mineral Resource Estimate — 83.2 Mt Indicated and 247.0 Mt Inferred, approximately 330 Mt in total — is defined on less than 10% of the approximately 12,000-acre Silicon Ridge district. The resource remains open.
- Domestic supply-chain significance: the Project is designed to produce, in the United States, a suite of minerals for which the country is currently import-reliant — including gallium and germanium, both subject to Chinese export restrictions announced in December 2024; rare earth elements, several of which — including terbium, dysprosium, and yttrium — became subject to Chinese export licensing controls announced in April 2025; and rubidium and cesium, whose global mine supply is concentrated in a single foreign-controlled producer.
Management commentary
“The PEA marks an important milestone for Ionic MT and validates years of technical work at Silicon Ridge,” said Andre Zeitoun, Founder and CEO of Ionic MT. “The results outline a long-life, capital-efficient U.S. critical-minerals and advanced-materials platform supported by a diversified product suite and the Project’s maiden Mineral Resource Estimate. The study demonstrates the potential for Silicon Ridge to become a material domestic source of alumina, rare earths and several other strategically important critical minerals, including gallium, germanium, rubidium and cesium, from a single mineral deposit using one processing platform. Silicon Ridge, together with our operating, processing and laboratory facility in Provo, provides a strong foundation for the next phase of technical, strategic, government and financing discussions.”
Project overview
Silicon Ridge is a surface halloysite clay deposit located on Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration (SITLA) trust lands near Eagle Mountain, Utah — where Project royalties help fund Utah’s K-12 public schools. The Company is advancing the Project in engagement with state and local stakeholders. The resource is defined by a close-spaced, shallow drilling grid across the clay horizon — more than 100 drill holes and approximately 4.7 kilometers (roughly 15,300 feet) of total drilling — supported by deeper core holes testing the underlying stratigraphy to depths of up to approximately 270 meters. Sample assaying was performed at independent accredited laboratories, including ALS and SGS, under the Company’s QA/QC program, with the Company’s internal laboratory benchmarked against external results on paired samples. The deposit is amenable to free-dig surface mining at a life-of-mine strip ratio of 0.2:1 — without drilling and blasting — feeding a hydrometallurgical flowsheet developed and operated at the Company’s approximately 85,000 sq ft facility in Provo, Utah. Halloysite’s naturally reactive aluminosilicate structure allows direct hydrochloric-acid leaching at atmospheric pressure and moderate temperature — the property that enables a domestic, non-Bayer route to alumina and recovery of the full co-product suite from a single feed. The flowsheet uses hydrochloric acid leaching with industrial acid regeneration and is designed as a closed-loop system recycling process water and recapturing approximately 97% of its primary chemical reagent for reuse — reducing reagent consumption, waste volumes, and the Project’s environmental footprint. The Project is located near established regional infrastructure, including natural gas and electrical power serving the surrounding area, and the Company is engaged in constructive discussions with Eagle Mountain City regarding water and municipal services for the Project. SGS serves as independent Qualified Person and metallurgical laboratory.
Separately from the PEA, Ionic MT holds process intellectual property for Ionisil™, the Company’s halloysite-derived nano-silicon battery-anode material. Ionisil™ is distinct from the amorphous nano-silica co-product valued in the PEA, and no nano-silicon revenue, cost, or market assumptions are included in the PEA economics.
Investor and strategic partner engagement
Ionic MT has engaged Citigroup, which is serving as the exclusive capital markets adviser to the Company.
Mineral resource and study basis
Metallurgical recoveries and mass balances applied in the PEA are derived from laboratory test work performed and confirmed by the hydrometallurgy team at SGS Lakefield, supported by independent assay programs, with the independent QP’s selected recoveries and price assumptions applied throughout the economic model. The PEA economic analysis is supported by the Project’s maiden Mineral Resource Estimate of 83.2 Mt of Indicated and 247.0 Mt of Inferred Mineral Resources (in-pit, at a 1% Al₂O₃ cut-off), and the production schedule includes both Indicated and Inferred material. Inferred Mineral Resources are considered too geologically speculative to have the modifying factors applied that would enable them to be categorized as Mineral Reserves, and there is no certainty that the results of the PEA will be realized.
Report availability
As a private company, Ionic MT will not publicly file the full technical report. The Company is voluntarily disclosing selected PEA results and is not subject to public-company technical-report filing requirements. Qualified investors, strategic partners, lenders, and government counterparties may request access to the complete PEA and supporting technical documentation under confidentiality agreement through the contact below.
About Ionic Mineral Technologies
Ionic Mineral Technologies is a U.S.-based vertically integrated producer of advanced materials and critical mineral solutions. The Company is developing the Silicon Ridge Project in Utah and operates a downstream processing facility in Provo, Utah.
A link to a Company video can be found here, and you can learn more at https://ionicmt.com.
Forward-looking statements
This news release contains “forward-looking statements” and “forward-looking information” within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including statements regarding the results and assumptions of the PEA (projected net present value, internal rate of return, capital and operating costs, payback period, mine life, production volumes, revenue, and margins); the size, grade, and classification of Mineral Resources and the potential to expand or upgrade them; the anticipated processing route and its performance; product markets and pricing; and the strategic significance of the Project. Forward-looking statements are based on assumptions management considers reasonable as of the date hereof and are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially, including: the preliminary nature of the PEA and the ±35% accuracy of its estimates; that Mineral Resources are not Mineral Reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability; that Inferred Mineral Resources are too speculative geologically to have economic considerations applied to them; metallurgical, technical, and scale-up risk; commodity price volatility and market development risk; permitting, environmental, water, and land-tenure risk; financing risk; changes in government policy and trade measures; and general economic conditions. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements except as required by law.
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