A former White House official is now lobbying for a federally backed lithium producer in Nevada as the Trump administration pushes to ramp up domestic mining.
Cam Sadler, who served as a special assistant to President Donald Trump and White House chief of staff Susie Wile’s director of operations, is now lobbying for Australian lithium miner Ioneer, according to a lobbying disclosure form made public last week. Sadler left the White House in April to join the global strategic advisory firm FGS Global as a managing director after serving the administration for more than a year.
Ioneer is pushing to build its $1.7 billion Rhyolite Ridge lithium-boron project in Nevada, which includes both an open-pit mine and processing plant. The project received a $996 million DOE loan guarantee in President Joe Biden’s final days in office in 2025.
The project in Nevada’s Esmeralda County is slated to pump out lithium carbonate for use in electric vehicle batteries. According to the company’s website, Ioneer has signed three binding offtake agreements with Ford; Prime Planet Energy and Solutions, a joint venture between Toyota and Panasonic; as well as South Korean battery materials manufacturer EcoPro Innovation.
