Beleaguered Ellison faces MinRes shareholders
The board of under-siege Mineral Resources faced grilling in Perth over a governance scandal, amid unexpected expressions of support.
Shareholders in Azure Minerals Ltd. have approved the Australian lithium miner’s takeover by billionaire Gina Rinehart’s private company Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd. and partner Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile.
Under the deal, the Hancock-SQM consortium will acquire the Perth-based, ASX-listed company for A$3.70 per share, a significant premium on its last traded price of A$3.30. It values the miner at A$1.7 billion ($1.1 billion).
The transaction is subject to approval by the Supreme Court of Western Australia and is expected to close on May 2, Azure said in a statement to the stock exchange on Monday.
Prior to making a significant lithium discovery at what was first thought to be a nickel-copper-cobalt deposit in northern Western Australia, Azure’s shares had traded as low 4.8 cents.
Australia’s lithium industry has seen a frenzy of mergers and acquisitions over the last 12 months, despite a crash in lithium prices, due to the long-term role of the critical battery metal in the energy transition.
(By Paul-Alain Hunt)
Comments
L.S.Norbury
Have the internal, toxic problems been solved and the F.I.R.B. approval been granted?