Vancouver lithium company announces investor interest from China, despite Ottawa’s warnings – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – March 7, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Another deep-pocketed China-based buyer is attempting to invest in a Canadian critical-minerals company, even as Ottawa fires a warning shot that it is monitoring such deals closely, and prepared to intervene.

On Tuesday, Vancouver-based Lithium Americas Argentina Corp. (Lithium Argentina) said it had attracted a US$70-million investment from China-based Ganfeng Lithium, which would see it take a 15-per-cent stake in its Pastos Grandes project.

Ganfeng, one of the world’s biggest lithium producers, has the right to acquire up to 50 per cent of the Argentine lithium project for an additional US$330-million in the event of a change in control of Lithium Argentina.

This is the second time in the past few years that a China-based giant has attempted to grab control of Pastos Grandes. In 2021, China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd., or CATL, one of the world’s biggest electric car battery makers, attempted to buy Canada’s Millennial Lithium Corp., which at that time owned Pastos Grandes. Lithium Americas, Lithium Argentina’s predecessor company, ended up topping CATL’s offer for Millennial.

For the rest of this article: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-another-china-based-investor-attempts-investment-in-a-canadian/