Kidman/Marindi tussle starts

PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The legal battle between ASX-listed Kidman Resources and fellow-listed Marindi Resources was launched in the Supreme Court on Monday.

Marindi in November started legal proceedings claiming that Kidman had failed to comply with a binding agreement to sell lithium rights to Marindi.

Marindi claimed that the two companies had reached a heads of agreement in April of 2016, via email. The alleged agreement would see Marindi acquire the lithium rights to the Mt Holland project, in the Forrestania lithium belt, subject to Kidman retaining a 2% net smelter return on all pegmatite minerals, and rights to all other minerals within the relevant tenements.

Kidman said on Monday that it would "vigorously defend" the contractual claims, maintaining that Marindi’s action was opportunistic.

The trial is expected to run for the next three or four days.

In the meantime, Kidman has continued to rapidly progress the development work on its Earl Grey lithium deposit, which is contained within the Mt Holland project area, defining a maiden mineral resource of 128-million tonnes, grading 1.44% lithium oxide, for 1.84-million tonnes of lithium oxide.

Kidman also recently entered into an earn-in agreement with ASX-listed Western Areas over 19 tenements immediately adjacent to the Earl Grey lithium deposit, which could see the company earn a 50% interest in the lithium rights on the project area by spending A$5-million over a three-year period.

Kidman also bought two tenements from Western Areas in February this year, in a deal valued at A$6-million. The two tenements border the Earl Grey deposit.