Rinehart is one of several West Australian mining billionaires who are in a mad scramble to gain control over the state’s vast deposits of lithium – the metal dubbed “white gold” due to its market value and silver colour.
Lithium’s value lies not in its scarcity,but in the booming demand for batteries,which are the driving force behind the global electric vehicle wave. The mineral is the car’s most expensive component.
Azure’s flagship Andover lithium project boasts hundreds of outcropping lithium-rich rocks over a nine kilometre range near Roebourne in Australia’s remote Pilbara region.
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SQM controls 19.4 per cent of Azure’s stock and had its original $3.52-a-share offer endorsed by the miner’s board. It’s been joined on the share register by Hancock,which took 18.3 per cent,in a takeover play reminiscent of Hancock’s recent demolition of US giant Albermarle’s aspirations to seize control of another West Australian lithium developer Liontown.
In the face of Hancock’s presence,Albermarle eventually gave up its hopes of taking full control of Liontown. Similar tactics tilted the Azure battle in favour of Hancock.
In a move that pincers Ellison,the partnership said two other major shareholders in Azure – mining legend Mark Creasy’s Creasy Group and German-based Delphi Group – intend to sell all their shares to SQM and Hancock unless a superior proposal emerges.