The proposed $14.3 billion lithium giant is one step closer to realisation as Allkem and Livent shareholders vote in favour of the merger.
Of the 72 per cent of Allkem shareholders present at the Perth meeting on Tuesday, 89.3 per cent voted in favour of the company being acquired by newly created Arcadium Lithium, the proposed merged entity.
Livent shareholders followed suit, with the majority approving the merger.
The new entity will be owned 56 per cent by Allkem shareholders and 44 per cent by Livent shareholders.
The merger will cement Arcadium Lithium as one of the largest lithium companies in the world, combining a range of lithium assets all over the world.
Allkem owns the Mt Mattlin hard-rock lithium mine in Western Australia and a lithium spodumene project in Canada’s prospective James Bay region. Allkem also owns three lithium brine assets in Argentina, including its flagship Olaroz project, which it jointly owns with Toyota Tsusho Corporation.
Allkem also owns 75 per cent of the Naraha lithium hydroxide conversion plant in Japan, which will process roughly 9500 tonnes per annum of lithium carbonate feedstock from Olaroz.
Livent similarly holds lithium projects in Argentina and Canada, and is developing a lithium hydroxide processing plant in the latter. Livent has nearly 80 years’ experience producing a wide range of lithium chemicals and holds a number of contracts with various automobile makers in the US such as Tesla.
“The combined group will have an attractive geographic footprint and greater capacity to de-risk and accelerate growth with a deeper pool of technical, capital and projects expertise,” Allkem chairman Peter Coleman said.
It is expected that Arcadium Lithium will deliver production capacity of 250,000 tonnes per annum lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) by 2027.
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