In morning trade, the lithium developer's shares are up slightly to $3.00.

This is in line with the takeover offer tabled by Albemarle Corp (ASX: ALB) last month.

What's going on with the Liontown share price?

The Liontown share price is rising today amid news that Gina Rinehart's Hancock Prospecting has increased its stake again.

According to a change of interests of substantial holder notice, Rinehart has become Liontown's largest shareholder after increasing her holding from 14.67% to 16.69%.

But she may not stop there. In fact, based on what has been said, some of the buying today could be from Hancock Prospecting. For example, a media release late on Friday appears to show that Rinehart is interested in lifting her stake to the maximum allowed. It states:

Hancock is now Liontown's largest shareholder. Hancock welcomes the opportunity to participate in the Kathleen Valley project as a shareholder, and have an influence on the company's overall future direction – including where decisions are to be made by shareholders.

Hancock does not currently intend to put forward any director nominations at Liontown's upcoming Annual General Meeting. However, Hancock remains open to nominating directors to Liontown's board in the future and particularly if its Strategic Stake continues to increase towards 19.9%.

Why is this important?

This recent buying puts Hancock Prospecting in a very strong position to potentially block Albemarle's takeover proposal.

That's because a takeover requires a minimum of 75% of shares to be voted in its favour. If Rinehart can snap up 19.9%, it's very unlikely that a deal would be approved without Hancock's support.

What does remain unclear is whether Rinehart and Hancock Prospecting plan to just be shareholders or take Liontown private.

What else?

Back on 11 September, Liontown granted Albemarle due diligence for four weeks.

We are now on the final day of this four-week period, which means an update on the proposal is imminent. Stay tuned for that.

The post Liontown share price higher as Rinehart increases stake and Albemarle deadline nears appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

Although the resources sector as a whole is having an off-day, a good number of lithium miners and developers are roaring higher.

Here's a summary of how some of ASX lithium shares are performing today:

• The Core Lithium Ltd (ASX: CXO) share price is up 2.5% to 98 cents.
• The Liontown Resources Ltd (ASX: LTR) share price is up 1% to $2.75.
• The Mineral Resources Ltd (ASX: MIN) share price is up 2% to $80.33.
• The Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX: PLS) share price is up 4.5% to $4.21.

Why are some ASX lithium shares charging higher?

While there has been no news out of these ASX lithium shares today, as we covered here on Friday briefly, there has been some major news in the industry in the last few days.

That news is that the Chilean government plans to create a state-owned lithium company that owns controlling stakes in local lithium producers.

This sent the shares of lithium giants Albemarle Corporation (ASX: ALB) and Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile (ASX: SQM) crashing down to earth on Friday on Wall Street.

Bloomberg notes that the government will respect existing arrangements with the two companies, but then move to a state-controlled model once contracts expire in 2030 and 2043, respectively. Alternatively, the two mining giants could opt to give up a majority stake in their operations before then.

So why are some shares rising?

It is worth noting that not all ASX lithium shares are rising today. For example, Allkem Ltd (ASX: AKE) is flat, Lake Resources N.L. (ASX: LKE) is down 4.5%, and Argosy Minerals Limited (ASX: AGY) is down 3.5%.

The difference between these shares and the ones rising above is the location of some of their operations.

The ASX lithium shares that are rising have operations in low-risk jurisdictions, whereas the three listed above all have operations in Argentina.

This appears to indicate that some investors are concerned that Argentina might see what Chile is doing and try to replicate it. In light of this, it may have led some investors to switch out of these shares and into largely Australian-based lithium shares.

The post Why are ASX lithium shares powering higher today as the resource sector bleeds? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.