ALB - Rio Tinto buying Argentine lithium asset for $825m

Rio Tinto (NYSE:RIO) announced plans to acquire the Rincon lithium project from private equity investors at Sentient Equity Partners for $825m. The current owners claim that the Argentine asset is the largest naturally occurring, sodium bicarbonate resource in the world. The news comes on the back of a suspension at Rio's planned lithium mine in Serbia, and loan forgiveness to the Government of Mongolia, in hopes of getting a copper development back on track. With Goldman downgrading lithium names like Albemarle (NYSE:ALB) and Livent (NYSE:LTHM) on a wave of supply, and BofA reducing exposure to Chilean lithium producer SQM (NYSE:SQM) on fears of supply restrictions, the commodity bull-bear debate continues. However, for natural-resource investors in Argentina, this could mark a turning point, as up until this point many investors have attempted to limit exposure to Argentine capital controls and policy movements in recent years.

For further details see:

Rio Tinto buying Argentine lithium asset for $825m