Here is the report from AFR...Rowsthorn spearheads legal battle at Bald Hill lithium mine
Sarah Thompson, Anthony Macdonald and Tim Boyd
Feb 24, 2021 – 1.56pm
Who would’ve thought there would be a bunch of people fighting over getting Bald?
Mark Rowsthorn has got a fight on his hands. Photo: Louise Kennerley
And yet so it is at Western Australia’s Bald Hill lithium mine, which is at the centre of a tussle spearheaded by former Toll/Asciano/McAleese Ltd executive Mark Rowsthorn against United States company Austroid Corporation.
Rowsthorn is understood to be leading the charge against Austroid on behalf of a bunch of local shareholders who have stakes in under-administration Alita Resources – the owner of the Bald Hill mine.
Alita’s administrators KordaMentha have entered into a deed of company arrangement for Austroid to acquire Alita and its assets. The deal would see Alita’s shareholders – including ASX-listed Galaxy Resources and fund manager Tribeca Investment Partners – get zero cents in the dollar.
But not if Rowsthorn has anything to say about it.
Rowsthorn’s company Lithium WA Investments Pty Ltd has launched legal proceedings in Western Australia, seeking court orders to place Alita into liquidation or enable it to acquire the Alita assets for $55 million.
That action is supported – and jointly financed – by Alita shareholders Galaxy and Tribeca.
And it comes a couple of months after Rowsthorn fired off a letter to the Foreign Investment Review Board, seen by this column
In that letter, Rowsthorn questions whether Austroid is simply Liatam Mining Pty Ltd’s new face, the Chinese company that signed a DOCA with Alita’s creditors to buy its assets in December 2019.
FIRB did not approve – although didn’t deny – Liatam’s proposal and Liatam made an application to the WA Supreme Court in November last year to vary the terms of its DOCA, enabling it to proceed with the DOCA without FIRB approval.
The variations were approved by the court.
Despite the DOCA being able to complete, all of the shares in Alita remained with existing shareholders and Liatam did not become Alita’s owner.
“It is open to infer that, having failed to obtain FIRB approval for Liatam’s acquisition of Alita under Liatam’s DOCA proposal, [Austroid director] Mr Que (through Austroid) has simply created an alternative corporate structure, which has the face of a United States incorporated entity, namely Austroid, to attempt to give effect to the ultimate goal of owning the Bald Hill mine.”
Rowsthorn wrote that Liatam director Mike Que is also the sole director of Austroid.
“Mr Que is a director of both Austroid and Liatam Mining Pty Ltd, an Australia registered company owned by a Hong Kong associate,” an Austroid spokesman told this column.
“Mr Que initially used the Liatam vehicle, because of tax planning reasons, to secure control of Alita and recapitalise the Bald Hill lithium operation.
“By the time the Federal Government restructured the FIRB approvals process on 29 March 2020, Mr Que had already submitted Liatam’s foreign investment application.
“Faced with lengthy delays because of the changed FIRB guidelines, Mr Que decided to withdraw Liatam’s FIRB application in April 2020 and has now proposed a new DOCA through his other vehicle, Austroid.”
Bring on the courts!
