Mineral Resources ups stake in Mt Marion

Mineral Resources has upped its stake in the Mt Marion lithium project, one of the state’s few mining operations under construction, to complete a week during which a series of deals took place in the lithium sector.

At a cost of $US19.65 million, Mineral Resources is exercising an option to buy 13.1 per cent of the Mt Marion mine project vehicle, Reed Industrial Minerals, from Neometals.

That takes its stake to 43.1 per cent.

That’s equivalent to Ganfeng’s 43.1 per cent shareholding, while Neometals holds the remaining 13.8 per cent.

The $83 million Mt Marion project is expected to enter commissioning in the middle of this year.

It comes two days after Chinese industrial player Ganfeng more than doubled its offtake agreement to 200,000 tonnes of spodumene concentrate annually, from 80,000t.

Earlier this week, Galaxy Resources and General Mining Corporation announced a $216 million tie-up, to create a miner with market capitalisation in excess of $700 million.

The two companies are partners at the Mt Cattlin lithium project.

General Mining shareholders will receive 1.65 Galaxy shares for every one General share they hold.

The movements reflect some very bullish predictions about the demand for lithium, which is being driven by the market for batteries to power electric cars, such as that being developed by Tesla.

Shares in Mineral Resources were up 3.1 per cent to $8.88 at the close, while Neometals fell 2 per cent to 47.5 cents per share.