There's no way Ioneer will sell the business or the project, the...

There's no way Ioneer will sell the business or the project, the DOE loan is attached to the project not Ioneer itself except in the way that they are the single signatory.
So if they go away so does the DOE loan or it will need to be renegotiated with the DOE with the new owner and who in their right mind would risk a 20 year loan at the lowest possible interest rate that is going to fund 65% roughly of the build out costs.

The huge Tesla battery plant in Nevada is 240 miles away fom the Ioneer's project and Panasonic also leases manufacturing from them.....just saying. Tesla is opening their own lithium processing plant in Texas 600 miles away from the giga factory in Nevada, due to be operational in 2025 and still doesn't cover their needs so if Tesla is watching I wouldn't be suprised if they start sniffing around.