(Yicai) Dec. 23 -- Shares of China Union Holdings surged by their daily trading limit after the property developer and manager unveiled a USD175 million plan to acquire Argentum Lithium, an Argentine brine miner, to further diversify its business.

China Union [SHE: 000036] closed 10 percent higher at CNY6.13 (87 US cents) a share today. The broader Shenzhen market climbed 0.3 percent. The shares have gained 50 percent since the end of last year.

China Union has inked a deal to buy all of Argentum Lithium from Lithium Chile and its President and Chief Executive Steve Cochrane, the Shenzhen-based firm announced late yesterday. Lithium Chile is listed on Canada's TSX Venture Exchange.

China Union became a minority shareholder in a developer of lithium salt mining technology at the end of 2023 and in a lithium salt extraction adsorbent maker at the start of last year, laying the groundwork for this acquisition.

With this latest deal, China Union will obtain an 80 percent interest in the Arizaro project in Argentina's Salta province, it said, noting that another lithium mining project, still in the exploration stage, and a water extraction project owned by Argentum Lithium will be divested before the deal is closed.

The Arizaro project includes six mining permits for the Arizaro lithium salt lake covering about 205 square kilometers, China Union said. It has 261,000 tons of measured lithium carbonate equivalent, with total measured and indicated resources amounting to 2.5 million tons equivalent.

A pre-feasibility study for the project has already been completed, China Union said, adding that it will primarily produce lithium carbonate, an important raw material for lithium batteries.

Once the acquisition is approved by shareholders and the authorities, preparations and planning for the Arizaro project’s design and construction will begin, China Union said, without providing a projected production start date or an expected annual production capacity of lithium carbonate.

Editor: Martin Kadiev