Global Lithium Resources dragged into AVZ Minerals drama with ‘board changes’ imminent

The Perth-centric tussle to seize control of Congo cautionary tale AVZ Minerals is believed to be behind a mysterious trading halt by Global Lithium Resources. Global Lithium paused the exchange of its shares on Tuesday morning “pending an announcement to the market regarding board changes” expected to be released by the end of Thursday. The West Australian understands the upcoming “board changes” announcement relates to recent developments at the now-delisted AVZ Minerals. Last month Subiaco-registered Resource Capital Investments lobbed an offer to buy up the shares held by AVZ’s institutional investors for 1¢ apiece. Filings to the corporate regulator revealed that Michael Carrick and Geoff Jones are the directors of Resources Capital Investments. Mr Jones is also the chairman of Global Lithium. A spokesman for the West Perth-based Global Lithium declined to comment. Based on The West’s calculations, Resource Capital’s offer to only the institutional end of AVZ’s register would cost about $5.9m, if all shareholders were to accept. That slice of shares would have been valued at about $467m back in April 2022, the month before AVZ fell into a trading suspension from which it would never return as disputes over ownership of the Manono project began to unfurl. AVZ’s board told shareholders not to “surrender” their shares to the “opportunistic and inadequate” Resource Capital offer. “The offer is an attempt to acquire control of the board of directors of AVZ and the Manono project, without paying fair value to shareholders,” AVZ said in a statement. AVZ was removed from the ASX in May after being worth $2.7 billion in its heyday. Global Lithium shares last changed hands at 26¢ each, giving the company a market capitalisation of $67.7 million. Global Lithium owns lithium exploration assets in the Pilbara and Goldfields, and used to count Chris Ellison’s Mineral Resources as its major shareholder. MinRes still holds a 9.5 per cent stake in the company.