LRS General Discussion, page-12975

Not specific to anything to do with LRS, but an interesting insight to the Lithium M&A space.

Albermale saying they are targeting earlier stage projects so they can get a foot in the door.

For the record, I'm not trying to draw any inferences about takeover activity with LRS. TBH I think it's unlikely - even Sigma didn't seem to have any formal takeover offers throughout their entire exploration and development phases.

Albemarle said there had been no meaningful engagement with the Liontown board since its spurned $5.5 billion takeover bid for pre-production lithium miner Liontown Resources.

But Charlotte-headquartered Albemarle did highlight a change in approach securing downstream assets, suggesting it would look to take up stakes in early stage projects. Mr Masters said the strategy was for Albemarle to get a tactical position earlier in the development of an asset.

“Now there’s more risk in that … but we’re taking smaller stakes to get our foot in the door, so to speak. And then it allows us to get information to analyse the opportunity as it develops, and then we will have an opportunity later whether we participate in a bigger way or not,” he said.

Albemarle this week paid $C109 million ($123 million) for a stake in ASX-listed explorer Patriot Battery Metals which has a lithium project in Northern Quebec.

Chief financial officer Scott Tozier said another example of Albemarle’s strategy was last month’s $US20 million ($30.5 million) acquisition of a Lithium Power International subsidiary with exploration tenements near the Greenbushes mine in WA’s south-west.

Albemarle has a half-share in Greenbushes, regarded