Kim I-tak, first vice minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, poses for a photo Tuesday afternoon (local time) with Kyle Haustveit, US Deputy Secretary of Energy (left), after their meeting in Washington, D.C., at the MOU signing ceremony for the Nevada lithium-boron plant development project. [Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport]
Kim I-tak, first vice minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, poses for a photo Tuesday afternoon (local time) with Kyle Haustveit, US Deputy Secretary of Energy (left), after their meeting in Washington, D.C., at the MOU signing ceremony for the Nevada lithium-boron plant development project. [Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport]

Kim I-tak, first vice minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, attended an MOU signing ceremony in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday afternoon (local time) between South Korean companies and developer Ioneer for the development of a lithium-boron plant in Nevada. The ceremony followed a meeting between Kim and Kyle Haustveit, US Deputy Secretary of Energy.

The project is the first energy infrastructure construction venture to emerge from a meeting held Jan. 5, when Minister Kim Yun-deok met with US Deputy Secretary of Energy James Danly.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said the achievement was significant because financial structuring and the linking of South Korean companies were accomplished in a short period of time. The project had originally been set to proceed with US-based construction companies at its core, but the South Korean government stepped in proactively with policy financing to secure a role for Korean firms as construction partners.

Ahead of the signing, Vice Minister Kim and Haustveit met and agreed to expand the scope of cooperation between the two countries based on the results of this first joint project.

The US side proposed additional energy cooperation projects within the United States, and Kim said he would connect South Korean companies capable of participating in those projects and support their structuring.

The Nevada lithium-boron production facility is an investment-development project that will build a plant to produce key materials for semiconductors, batteries and other industries, funded through a $1 billion loan from the US Department of Energy and investment from the Korea Overseas Infrastructure and Urban Development Corporation (KIND). The plant is expected to produce 20,000 metric tons of lithium carbonate and 130,000 metric tons of boric acid annually. The project, valued at around $2 billion, involves two years of construction followed by 18 years of operation. MOUs were signed between KIND and Ioneer, and between Hyundai Engineering and Ioneer.

Kim Bok-hwan, president of KIND, who attended the ceremony, said the organization would "not only secure the stability of this project through policy financing support — our core competency — but will also spare no effort in helping outstanding Korean construction companies advance together into the global infrastructure market."

Vice Minister Kim called the outcome "a model case in which the government proactively identified a government-to-government project and broadened opportunities for our companies by combining policy financing." He added that the government would "keep G2G high-level cooperation channels running at all times, organically link policy and financial investment, and fulfill its role as a steadfast partner so that capable Korean construction companies can lead high-value investment-development projects in America's key infrastructure market."


smh@heraldcorp.com