(Yicai Global) Oct. 5 -- The Hong Kong-based steel trader, Burwill Holdings Ltd. [HK:0024], plans to invest AUD19.58 million (USD15.38 million) in the Australian mining company, Alliance Mineral Assets Ltd. (AMAL), to become a shareholder. The deal will give the company exclusive rights to buy lithium ore resources in a mining treatment project in western Australia.

Burwill signed a contract with AMAL yesterday to buy 74.8 million new shares of the Perth-based Australian company, accounting for a 13.4 percent stake, said a statement from the former company.

AMAL owns a lithium mineral project at Bald Hill in West Australia. Burwill also signed an exclusive sales contract with the Australian company, getting the priority right to purchase the lithium ore processed in the Bald Hill treatment plant.

The project, which Burwill said has good prospects, will start production in the first quarter of 2018. Lithium is a scarce resource worldwide and is in vast market demand as the essential material in the electric vehicle industry.