Lithium King Bets Big on Demand Shift With Australia Mine Deal
- Albemarle agrees to buy 50 percent of a giant lithium project
- Wodgina lithium deposit has a mine life of over 30 years
Photographer: Carla Gottgens/Bloomberg
Albemarle Corp. agreed to pay $1.15 billion for a stake in a giant lithium mine in Australia, guaranteeing the biggest producer of the mineral greater access to a more refined form of the raw material that’s increasingly being used in electric-car batteries.
The Charlotte, North Carolina-based company will take a 50 percent stake in a potential joint venture with Mineral Resources Ltd. that will own and operate the Wodgina hard-rock lithium deposit with a mine life of over three decades. Under the deal, Albemarle will manage the marketing and sales of lithium hydroxide, which fetches a higher price than lithium carbonate. Mineral Resources rose as much as 33 percent, the most since July 2006, in Sydney trading Thursday.