Rio Tinto’s stealth moves in WA lithium grab
Rio Tinto has quietly entered the lithium land grab unfolding in Western Australia as it looks to secure its future in battery minerals, racking up exploration tenements spanning more than 145,000 hectares in the red-hot jurisdiction that has minted billionaires and fanned takeover battles.
The Australian Financial Review can reveal that Rio has claims covering more than 61,000 hectares close to the Kathleen Valley lithium project being developed by $6.6 billion takeover target Liontown Resources.
It is also in the process of shoring up almost 46,000 hectares of exploration ground directly north and to the south-east of the Mt Ida lithium project owned by Gina Rinehart and Chris Ellison-backed Delta Lithium.
Jakob Stausholm-led Rio Tinto has put its foot on vast tracts of land close to prized lithium assets. Bloomberg
Rio’s exploration activity – most of which is pending approval by WA authorities – means it is vying for a place alongside New York-listed Albemarle and Chile’s SQM to secure lithium assets essential to the global decarbonisation effort.
Rio appears to be banking on exploration success in an area of WA dubbed the lithium “corridor of power”, and already home to its vast iron ore operations.
Chief executive Jakob Stausholm said in May that Rio was likely to sit out M&A because of the high valuations of listed lithium players. Last week, Mrs Rinehart escalated interest in the sector, snaring 7.2 per cent of Liontown, which itself is the target of a $3-a-share takeover by Albemarle.
Rio declined to comment when asked about its intentions as a potential consolidator and the exploration ground it has accumulated in roughly a 250-kilometre line from Kathleen Valley to Mt Ida. It has interests in Argentina and
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