Rockwood To Acquire Lithium Producer

Rockwood Holdings has agreed to acquire Australia’s Talison Lithium for $732 million. Talison produces lithium concentrate at a mining facility in Western Australia and has developed plans for a downstream lithium carbonate facility. It had sales of about $90 million in the first nine months of its most recent fiscal year. Rockwood, which calls itself the world’s largest producer of lithium-based compounds, mines lithium in the U.S. and Chile and operates several derivative facilities around the world. Lithium compounds have been attracting attention thanks to their use in batteries for electric vehicles. Traditional applications in glass and ceramics, however, remain the largest lithium markets.