Albemarle chief executive Kent Masters considers the battery chemical giant’s $5.5 billion bid for aspiring lithium producer Liontown Resources a live offer, despite no meaningful discussions between the two parties for the past five months.. The Tim Goyder-chaired Liontown is getting on with building what will be its flagship Kathleen Valley mine, having rejected its suitor in March.
Albemarle has signed off on doubling the size of Kemerton to 100,000 tonnes a year in a move that will take its lithium processing investments in WA past $4 billion. It is building a $140 million accommodation village at Australind, south of Kemerton, to house the 1000 workers needed for the expansion.The New York-listed company remains on the hunt for more lithium mines, and is willing to invest from the exploration stage to mines already in production.
“I control my downstream assets, I control my customers, I can control the quality to my customer. If I make a promise to the customer, it’s within my control to deliver it.” The chemical engineer turned executive said the weaker share price would not dampen Albemarle’s appetite for new lithium mines, with WA a preferred jurisdiction.“We are an integrated player by strategy,” he said. “So we want to be in the resource and then the conversion, and that way we control the quality. And if the market moves over time between hydroxide and spodumene, we don’t care because we have both of those.