National

China-linked bid for WA lithium mine knocked back

By AAP Newswire

Jul 21, 2023

Batteries containing lithium. — A bid to buy a shuttered WA mine, which produced lithium used in batteries, has failed. -AAP Image

The Foreign Investment Review Board has knocked back an application from a US company with Chinese ties to acquire a shuttered West Australian lithium mine.

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Orders preventing Austroid Corp from acquiring the other 90 per cent of Alita Resources that it doesn't already own were published in the Federal Register of Legislation on Thursday.

The formerly ASX-listed Alita collapsed into insolvency in 2019 amid a slump in lithium prices and its Bald Hill mine in the Eastern Goldfields region was shuttered.

A Chinese company, Liatam Mining, swooped in to propose buying Alita's assets in 2020 but was unable to get FIRB approval.

Nevada-based Austroid Corp then proposed acquiring the lithium mine in a deal that some in the mining community dubbed a "stealth bid" by Liatam because the companies shared a director.

The federal government has been concerned about Chinese ownership of Australian critical minerals resources, and lithium is a vital component of lithium-ion batteries used in consumer electronics and the electric vehicle industry.

Liatam has been contacted for comment.