MinRes wins fight for Bald Hill lithium mine after court hearing
A court hearing in Perth has cleared the way for Chris Ellison’s Mineral Resources to acquire the Bald Hill lithium mine from administrators as part of consolidation in the sector in Western Australia.
MinRes and McGrathNicol are finalising the sale, which represents a rebuff to China’s hold on Australian battery metal assets, after a Supreme Court ruling on Wednesday. The ruling came as the market closely watches Gina Rinehart’s intentions after she built a near-11 per cent stake in Albemarle takeover target Liontown Resources.
Western Australia is in the midst of a lithium investment boom. Bloomberg
Perth-headquartered MinRes swooped on Bald Hill after Treasurer Jim Chalmers blocked a sale to China-linked Austroid Corporation in July.
The Bald Hill mine and associated processing plant are about 80 kilometres from Liontown Resources’ undeveloped Buldania lithium project and south-east of where MinRes operates the Mount Marion mine in partnership with China’s Ganfeng.
MinRes called on the Albanese government to scrap a Bald Hill offtake deal with Hong Kong-registered Yihe Cleantech Material when it first reached an agreement with McGrathNicol to buy the mine.
MinRes confirmed on September 4 that, notwithstanding the Foreign Investment Review Board and government block on Austroid, it wanted action on the offtake deal in light of allegations the mine “operates under effective foreign control through a complex corporate structure”.
The court ruling means Singapore-listed Alita Resources, Bald Hill’s owner, can be put into liquidation. An update on Alita and the Bald Hill sale to the Singapore Exchange was expected late on Wednesday.
Alita appointed McGrathNicol as administrators in 2019. The sale of the asset to MinRes was
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