PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed Mineral Resources (MinRes) has served fellow-listed Pilbara Minerals with a writ of summons to the Supreme Court of Western Australia.
The writ relates to a dispute over the validity of Pilbara Minerals' sales notice over lithium from the Pilgangoora project, in Western Australia.
Pilbara Minerals previously issued MinRes a notice of dispute over the sale of the lithium product, with the companies now obligated to call in an independent expert to assist in determining a suitable outcome to the issue.
Pilbara Minerals said on Friday that as both parties were contractually obligated to follow the dispute resolution procedure, the company would make an immediate application to stay the court proceedings to allow the expert’s binding termination to be made without delay.
The issue arose around MinRes’s right of first refusal over the lithium produced at Pilgangoora, after Pilbara Minerals inked an offtake agreement with General Lithium for the supply of 140 000 t/y of 6% chemical-grade spodumene concentrate over a six-year period from the first quarter of 2018.