Albemarle Given Extra Time for Due Diligence on Liontown Resources

Albemarle has been granted an additional week to review the financial records of takeover target Liontown Resources. This extension comes after a company owned by Australia's richest woman acquired a blocking stake in the lithium miner.

Liontown Resources announced on Thursday that it has extended Albemarle's exclusive due diligence period by seven days, as requested by the US-based mining company. Originally, Liontown had granted Albemarle four weeks to review its financial statements, following a takeover proposal worth over $4 billion.

"While Albemarle's due diligence is nearly complete, they have requested a short extension of the exclusive period," Liontown stated in a market filing.

The announcement did not make any reference to Hancock Prospecting's statement from late Wednesday, revealing that the Australian mining company had acquired a 19.9% strategic stake in Liontown.

Hancock, led by billionaire Gina Rinehart, declared that reaching this equity stake had been its strategic objective.

"With this stake, Hancock now looks forward to exerting significant influence on Liontown's future as its largest shareholder," remarked Hancock on Wednesday.

Albemarle had recently submitted an updated proposal to Liontown, as the latter is developing one of the world's largest and highest-grade hard rock lithium deposits. The mining company's offer of AU$3.00 ($1.92) in cash per share is said to be their best and final bid, as previous attempts were rejected for being too low.

By Stuart Condie