The history of Western Australia is marked by periods of booms and busts.

The state saw huge population booms from gold rush days in the 19th century, the nickel boom of the 1960s to the natural gas boom of the 80s to the iron ore boom of the 2000s.

Now, the great battery metals boom is in full swing. 

Just outside of the CBD of Western Australia’s capital of Perth, West Perth – home to dozens of small-cap mining businesses – the streets are bustling.

This is where fortunes are made and tiny players become giants, as is the case of Liontown Resources (ASX: LTR) +1,338% since 2019 and Pilbara Minerals (ASX:PLS) +3,300% since 2015, in the last few years.

With dozens of companies claiming lithium tenements across Western Australia – a great lithium land grab is now underway.

Iron ore billionaires are now becoming battery metals and lithium barons.

The industry is looking to be going through a period of aggressive consultation, with mergers and acquisitions happening across the spectrum.

New York-listed Albemarle and Chile’s SQM are on the prowl for lithium supply to meet massive battery manufacturing capacity. 

Albemarle had bid AU$6.6 Billion for Liontown in recent weeks, making Chairman Tim Goyder a paper billionair and hundreds of small time investors multi-millionaires. Although the game is far from over yet.

Now big fish Rio Tinto is accumulating lithium lands, with reports the giant is racking up exploration tenements spanning more than 145,000 hectares in the outback, AFR reports.

London HQ’d Rio is buying up strategic locations near Liontown Resources and Delta Lithium locations, the newspaper reports today.

This follows moves by both local billionaires Chris Elison (scooping up control of Delta Lithium) and Gina Rinehart (scooping up strategic stake in Liontown) in the last two weeks – see Australia’s Iron Ore Oligarcs Become Lithium Barson.

Despite all the wheeling and dealing, the price of lithium has declined – with small caps stocks cooling off this year from previous highs.