On October 20, the minimum legal bidding conditions were met and the company acquired 54% of the issued and outstanding Alpha shares.

After a period of six months during which Alpha Lithium’s assets were evaluated, an initial offer was made (1.24 Canadian dollars per share), followed by an improved offer (1.48 Canadian dollars per share), Tecpetrol finally closed its purchase of a controlling stake in the firm Alpha Lithium Corporation on Friday, October 20. “With the acquisition of Alpha Lithium, Tecpetrol is consolidating its strategy to enter the lithium business,” said Andrea Rocca, President of Energy Transition.

The purchase enables Tecpetrol to acquire lithium projects in three salt flats in Salta, Argentina: Tolillar, with an area of 27,000 hectares, which is at an advanced exploration stage with over 20 wells drilled; another 5,000 hectares in the Salar del Hombre Muerto, at the exploratory stage; and Arizaro, of 6,000 hectares and also at an exploratory stage.

These projects are complemented by Tecpetrol’s own mining concessions in Guayatayoc (Jujuy), which are in the early stages of development. In addition, the company has already built a Direct Lithium Extraction (DEL) pilot plant in Olacapato, Salta, the first of its kind in Latin America, an achievement which proved to be vital for its most recent acquisition of projects. 

Jorge Dimópulos, the Vice President Energy Transition, explained that the successful acquisition was the results of a great deal of hard work on the part of the team, a joint effort between various sectors of the company and the Techint Group. He highlighted that, “With this project we’ve been able to capitalize on the knowhow we’ve been building in recent years in the lithium sector. Now we’ll be able to contribute our industrial DNA to this expanding segment.”

It is worth noting that the process has not yet fully concluded. The offer period was extended for an additional ten mandatory days to allow the remaining shareholders to participate in the offer and withdraw their investment, and acceptance of 67.4% of the shares was achieved on October 31. The next step is to obtain approval for the purchase of 100% of the company's shares at the Shareholders' Meeting scheduled for December 19.