SQM and Australia's richest person Gina Rinehart's Hancock Prospecting, already Azure's two largest shareholders, teamed up in December to buy the lithium developer.

BHP has been working towards making a transition to commodities and away from coal-related assets.

Don Lindsay will join the BHP board as a non-executive director on May 1.

Mineral Resources will use a digital trading platform to sell parcels of spodumene concentrate.

Ramelius had been looking at a potential acquisition of the Canada-based mine operator.

Steel production accounts for about 8% of global carbon emissions.

Perseus and Silvercorp vied for months to acquire the Africa-focused gold explorer, which owns the Nyanzaga gold project in Tanzania.