Albemarle, a specialty chemicals manufacturing company, failed to acquire Liontown Resources, a battery metals exploration and development company, for $4.3bn. Albemarle had been working for months to acquire Liontown and its offer was accepted in September. Both Albemarle and Chile’s SQM are already investors in some of Western Australia’s largest lithium projects and have partnered with local players including IGO, Wesfarmers and Mineral Resources to develop projects. But over recent weeks Australian billionaire Rinehart has built a 19.9% stake in Liontown through her iron ore mining company Hancock Prospecting. Rinehart stopped just below the threshold where she would need to make a counteroffer for the company. However, her stake is large enough to potentially block a vote on the deal.