Lithium Australia to divest of graphite assets

PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed Lithium Australia would divest of its five Western Australian graphite projects to focus on its lithium assets.

The junior company on Tuesday told shareholders that, since 2014, the company had been working to acquire a pool of assets covering both lithium and graphite after finding that both commodities would be high-demand materials for the lithium battery market.

However, in the two years since, the company’s business plan was implemented to advance the development of low-energy processing technologies for lithium extraction from silicates.

“In the past two years, Lithium Australia has developed an extensive lithium portfolio to support our processing ambitions but, while we were doing so, we were cognisant of other raw material requirements for battery and associated clean energy technologies,” said Lithium Australia MD Adrian Griffin.

“Of the cleantech raw materials, graphite in particular was in our sights as we built our lithium asset base; this dual focus enabled the company to identify and acquire a number of areas with high graphite potential.”

Griffin said that, to maintain the company’s lithium focus, Lithium Australia would now divest of its graphite portfolio.

The returns generated from the sale of the assets were currently intended to be distributed to shareholders, subject to the required approvals.