Canada’s Millenial Lithium appears to be the subject of a bidding war between two of China’s biggest electric vehicle (EV) battery producers.
In July Ganfeng announced its plans to purchase the Vancouver-based mining company for CAD $353 million, or $3.60 per share.
With negotiations ongoing, Millenial announced on September 8 it has received a new unsolicited, non-binding bid of CAD $377 million, or $3.85 per share from an unnamed company.
According to sources familiar with the deal who spoke to Bloomberg, the offer came from Tesla battery supplier CATL.
Millenial now says with the new offer on the table, Ganfeng has the right, but not the obligation to amend their original offer during the “Matching Period”, which runs until 4:00pm Shanghai time on September 27.
According to Millenial’s website, the company has several mining projects in Argentina. Their current focus is on developing the Pastos Grandes Lithium Project which was 4.1 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE).
The pilot plant has already produced battery grade lithium carbonate with 99.95% purity.
