The acquisition of the Karibib lithium project has failed after the Toronto Venture Exchange withheld approval for ILC Critical Minerals to exercise its buying option.
ILC Critical Minerals Ltd., a Canadian-listed company, had bought an option to buy all shares of Lepidico Mauritius, the company that owns 80% of the Karibib lithium project in 2025. The option expired on 27 February.
“The ILC board had carefully considered the financial and legal risks of the transaction, and supported the exercise of the option. The board had the required funding ready,” ILC chairman John Wisbey said in a media statement on Wednesday.
However, the Toronto Venture Exchange (TSXV) did not provide the required approval in time.
TSXV also prevented ILC from providing working capital to Lepidico, which would have allowed the option to be extended.
“This is a setback for ILC’s plans in southern Africa, because Karibib has a large lithium resource, the biggest known rubidium resource in Africa, and enough caesium for about one year of world use, and it had already reached definitive feasibility study stage in 2020,” Wisbey says.
The Karibib lithium project is owned by Lepidico, an Australian company that suspended operations in 2024 and went into liquidation last July.
