Shareholders in Azure Minerals have approved the Australian lithium miner’s takeover by billionaire Gina Rinehart’s private company Hancock Prospecting and partner Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile.
Under the deal, the Hancock-SQM consortium will acquire the Perth-based, ASX-listed company for A$3.70 per share, a significant premium on its last traded price of A$3.30. It values the miner at A$1.7-billion.
The transaction is subject to approval by the Supreme Court of Western Australia and is expected to close on May 2, Azure said in a statement to the stock exchange on Monday.
Prior to making a significant lithium discovery at what was first thought to be a nickel-copper-cobalt deposit in northern Western Australia, Azure’s shares had traded as low 4.8 cents.
Australia’s lithium industry has seen a frenzy of mergers and acquisitions over the last 12 months, despite a crash in lithium prices, due to the long-term role of the critical battery metal in the energy transition.