Article by Sean Smith courtesy of The West Australian.
Gina Rinehart’s listed partners in a potential lithium joint venture in WA’s central Yilgarn have gone into trading halts ahead of an announcement.
The Indian-backed Legacy Iron Ore and Hawthorn Resources flagged news of “a joint venture agreement on the Mt Bevan project”, 250km north of Kalgoorlie.
An agreement has been in the offing since Legacy’s controlling shareholder, Indian miner NMDC, visited WA last week amid speculation it was looking to break into WA lithium.
Last year, Legacy and Hawthorn struck a deal for Mrs Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting to take a 51 per cent stake in the undeveloped Mt Bevan magnetite deposit by funding the project through to pre-feasibility.
However, the trio later also agreed a non-binding agreement for Hancock to look over Mt Bevan’s potential for lithium, copper and nickel.
Mt Bevan borders the Mt Ida lithium project being fast-tracked by Delta Lithium, which on Wednesday announced a $46.4 million placement and strategic pact with Japan’s Idemitsu.
