Why lithium’s biggest WA kingmaker is for sale
Global Advanced Metals is up for sale after a maverick run offloading three undeveloped West Australian mines that went on to become world-class lithium assets.
Having exhausted its lithium portfolio with the sale of the Tabba Tabba project which just transformed owner Wildcat Resources into a billion-dollar company, Global Advanced is destined for new ownership.
Its parent, private equity firm Resource Capital Funds, stands to reap more than $1 billion for the business which is regarded as the world’s lowest cost producer of tantalum, a critical mineral that tends to occur naturally where lithium is present.
Global Advanced retains tantalum rights to the Greenbushes lithium mine in WA’s south-west.
Brett Beatty, RCF’s managing director in Australia, said Global Advanced is a strategically important supplier of tantalum used in electronics, aerospace, defence, chemical manufacture and other applications.
Its integrated supply chain stretches from WA mines to downstream operations in Boyertown, Pennsylvania, and Aizu in Japan, making Global Advanced one of the first businesses consulted when Prime Minister Anthony Albanese met ally and US leader Joe Biden to discuss co-operation in critical minerals.
Mr Beatty said the tantalum strategy helped explain what appears to be a series of head-scratching deals with Chris Ellison’s Mineral Resources, Pilbara Minerals and China’s Tianqi.
In exiting what became world-leading lithium mines Greenbushes, Wodgina and Pilgangoora for a song, Global Advanced retained the rights to the tantalum extracted during the mining of lithium-bearing spodumene.
The lithium producers in essence bear the mining cost of Global Advanced supplying about 30 per cent of the world’s tantalum. The
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