(Bloomberg) -- Shareholders in Azure Minerals Ltd. have approved the Australian lithium miner’s takeover by billionaire Gina Rinehart’s private company Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd. and partner Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile. 

Under the deal, the Hancock-SQM consortium will acquire the Perth-based, ASX-listed company for A$3.70 per share, a significant premium on its last traded price of A$3.30. It values the miner at A$1.7 billion (US$1.1 billion).

The transaction is subject to approval by the Supreme Court of Western Australia and is expected to close on May 2, Azure said in a statement to the stock exchange on Monday. 

Prior to making a significant lithium discovery at what was first thought to be a nickel-copper-cobalt deposit in northern Western Australia, Azure’s shares had traded as low 4.8 cents. 

Australia’s lithium industry has seen a frenzy of mergers and acquisitions over the last 12 months, despite a crash in lithium prices, due to the long-term role of the critical battery metal in the energy transition. 

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