By Melanie Burton and Lewis Jackson
MELBOURNE/BEIJING (Reuters) -China’s Tianqi Lithium is open to renegotiating joint venture partner IGO’s stake in the troubled Kwinana lithium refinery in Western Australia state, CEO Frank Ha said on Wednesday.
The refinery, the first lithium hydroxide plant to be built in Australia, has been grappling with operational issues and production delays amid a lithium price slump.
IGO, which owns a 49% stake, wrote down the loss-making refinery and said it had low confidence the asset could be improved when it reported last month.
“I am open to any of their proposals that we can discuss, but until now we have not received any official proposals from them,” Ha said during a media briefing.
“If they do not want to be a partner, they have to come to me, I’m open,” he said.
IGO did not immediately respond to emailed questions from Reuters.
Both companies also share ownership of the Greenbushes lithium mine, one of the world’s best lithium assets.
Asked whether Tianqi would consider IGO exiting Kwinana but staying invested in Greenbushes, Ha said the two assets were a package.
Tianqi would also not consider other partners in the Kwinana refiner, said Ha.
“It’s like a marriage … It’s against my rules that I start to find a new partner.”
Efficiency at the Kwinana was improving, according to Ha, and the company had no plans to shut down the refinery, which had a clear pathway to its full nameplate capacity of 24,000 tons per year.
The company was aiming for 65% capacity in the next year, Ha added.
(Reporting by Lewis Jackson in Beijing and Melanie Burton in Melbourne; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Michael Perry)
