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https://www.afr. com/street-talk/igo-prepares-monster-lithium-play-bankers-line-up-capital-20201207-p56l5m

IGO prepares monster lithium play, bankers line up capital

Sarah Thompson, Anthony Macdonald and Tim Boyd
Dec 7, 2020 – 12.04pm

Battery mineral play IGO Ltd is in late stage talks to acquire a large stake in the Greenbushes lithium mine in Western Australia.

It is understood IGO Ltd is considering a $2 billion-odd deal which would see it pick up at least a controlling stake in Greenbushes, which is owned by China's Tianqi Lithium Corporation.

The Greenbushes lithium mine in Western Australia is the world's biggest and highest grade hard rock lithium mine.

IGO's believed to have just about agreed the M&A transaction and turned its attention to raise equity to help fund what would be a transformational deal.

Sources said IGO Ltd had Citi and Macquarie Capital's investment banking teams on hand and those banks were starting to book fund managers for meetings. on Monday with a deal slated for later this week.

It would be a huge play for IGO Ltd, which has transitioned to a battery minerals and renewable energy play in recent years, and away from its copper and gold roots.
A big part of that was acquiring Mark Creasy's Sirius Resources in 2015, back when IGO Ltd was Independence Group.

Another big part of the plan is to consider options for its 30 per cent non-operating stake in the Tropicana gold mine, which is up for sale and could be worth $1.5 billion to $2 billion.

Unfortunately for IGO, the Tropicana sale - or review, as it is being called - is in its preliminary stages and it cannot be used to fund its bigger move on Greenbushes.

Tianqi is seeking to sell a stake in Greenbushes to pay down debt and reduce financial pressure caused by its $US4.1 billion acquisition of a stake in Chile's SQM 18-months ago.