Albemarle aims to close its buyout of Australian lithium developer Liontown Resources by the middle of 2024, its chief executive said on Tuesday.

Albemarle, the world's largest lithium producer, earlier this week made a revised, non-binding $4.3 billion bid for Liontown. On a Tuesday call with investors, CEO Kent Masters called Liontown's Kathleen Valley lithium deposit one of "few known world-class resources yet to be developed."

(Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; editing by Jason Neely)