Rio Tinto completes Arcadium Lithium takeover

Market: Battery materials, Metals
06/03/25

Global mining giant Rio Tinto has today completed its $6.7bn buyout of global chemicals producer Arcadium Lithium, soon to be renamed Rio Tinto Lithium.

Rio confirmed that it would buy Arcadium in October 2024, the seventh-largest lithium producer in the world by market capitalisation as of January 2024.

Rio Tinto aims to bring its lithium assets to about 200,000 t/yr of lithium carbonate equivalent by 2028.

In 2024, Arcadium sold 42,300t of lithium salts, including lithium hydroxide and lithium carbonate, along with 140,000 dry metric tonnes of spodumene concentrate. The company posted net income of $131.7mn in 2024, down from $330.1mn in 2023.

The firm had to suspend some operations at its Mount Cattlin mine in Western Australia while also delaying its expansions.

Arcadium will place its Mount Cattlin mine into care and maintenance by the middle of the year, after suspending it in September on low prices, potentially placing upward pressure on prices.

The top three lithium mining companies accounted for around 54pc of global production in 2023, a higher portion than the 15pc for nickel and 47pc for cobalt, according to the IEA.

Market participants told Argus earlier this year that lithium prices are unlikely to recover until the second half of 2026 on high inventories and a glut of supply set to come on line (see graph).

"Arcadium and the predecessor companies failed to advance a world class suite of assets on a timely basis," Global Lithium Podcast host Joe Lowry told Argus. "Hopefully that will change being part of a large company with a significant balance sheet."

By Chris Welch

Lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) production t

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