Liontown boss hoses down risk talk from Rinehart camp
Liontown Resources boss Tony Ottaviano says the company is about nine months away from having its flagship lithium mine built and in production despite Gina Rinehart fuelling concerns about the project.
Liontown chief executive Tony Ottaviano at the part-built Kathleen Valley mine in August. Evan Collis
The takeover target awarded the last of the construction contracts for the Kathleen Valley lithium mine and spodumene production plant on Wednesday, two days after Mrs Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting talked up its capacity to lend construction, mining and downstream processing expertise to the project.
“There is a clear line of sight to first spodumene production mid-next year,” Mr Ottaviano said in statement to the ASX regarding the awarding of a key contract.
The comment hoses down Hancock’s talk of “significant risk” hanging over Kathleen Valley.
Mr Ottaviano also said of engineering firm Monadelphous, which was awarded the final construction contract: “Their demonstrated skills, capability and professionalism reflects Liontown’s expectations of a partnership.”
Hancock has signalled seeking a seat on the board after building a stake of at least 7.72 per cent in Liontown – the target of a $6.6 billion takeover offer from New York-listed Albemarle.
The Liontown share price was up slightly at $3.05 in trading on Wednesday as the gap continued to widen on the Albemarle takeover offer pitched at $3.
The Albemarle share price has dipped from about $US200 when the takeover offer was accepted by the Liontown board on September 4 to a Tuesday close of $US184.35. The stock is down almost 38 per cent since last September when Albemarle started eyeing off Liontown.
Liontown declined to comment on any change of control provisions in
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