Australian nickel and gold miner IGO Ltd said on Wednesday it would invest $1.4 billion in a local unit of China’s Tianqi Lithium Corp for a stake in the Greenbushes lithium mine, as it looks to cash in on the lithium rush, reported Reuters.
IGO would take a 49% stake in Tianqi Lithium Energy Australia, giving it 24.99% ownership in Greenbushes – the world’s largest hard-rock lithium mine – and a 49% holding in Tianqi’s Kwinana lithium processing plant, both in Western Australia.
“Both Greenbushes and Kwinana are world-class assets with attractive growth profiles that together provide the platform for building a global lithium business,” IGO Chief Executive Peter Bradford said.