Albemarle announced today the signing of an asset sale and share subscription agreement with Mineral Resources for a wholly-owned subsidiary of Albemarle to acquire a 50% interest in MRL’s Wodgina hard rock lithium project in Western Australia and form a joint venture with MRL to own and operate the Wodgina project to produce spodumene concentrate and battery grade lithium hydroxide. Albemarle said last month that it signed a deal with MRL.
The transaction has been approved by the boards of directors of both companies and is expected to close in the second half of 2019, subject to antitrust and other regulatory approvals and satisfaction of other customary closing conditions.
On closing of the transaction, Albemarle would acquire a 50% interest in all mineral rights within the Wodgina tenements, other than iron ore, which will be retained exclusively by MRL, and tantalum, which is held by a third party; the spodumene concentration plant and all other fixed infrastructure, utility assets and mobile mining equipment to be used in the Wodgina project, other than the crusher, which will remain owned and operated by MRL, for a purchase price of $1.15 billion. The parties would jointly manage the joint venture through a company to be equally owned by the parties.
After closing of the acquisition and completion of the construction and ramp-up of the spodumene concentration plant, the Wodgina project is expected to produce approximately 100,000 metric tons/year of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE). This is planned to be used as feedstock for the future lithium hydroxide plant.
The parties would jointly fund, design, build and operate a battery grade lithium hydroxide plant to be constructed at Wodgina in two stages of up to 50,000 metric tons/year LCE each, utilizing Albemarle’s design.
By Natasha Alperowicz
Source: Chemical Week
The Chemours Company (NYSE: CC), DuPont de Nemours, Inc. (NYSE: DD) and Corteva, Inc. (NYSE: CTVA) (the “companies”) today announced they have reached an agreement in principle to comprehensively resolve all PFAS-related drinking water claims of a defined class of public water systems that serve the vast majority of the United States population.
The quest to develop hydrogen as a clean energy source that could curb our dependence on fossil fuels may lead to an unexpected place — coal. A team of Penn State scientists found that coal may represent a potential way to store hydrogen gas, much like batteries store energy for future use, addressing a major hurdle in developing a clean energy supply chain.
WE Soda (London), a major producer of soda ash, said it intends to launch an IPO and apply to list its shares on the main market of the London Stock Exchange. The company, wholly owned by industrial conglomerate the Ciner Group (Istanbul, Turkey), said it is the world’s largest producer of natural soda ash.
