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to the future for Chile’s lithium industry","back-to-the-future-for-chiles-lithium-industry","article/back-to-the-future-for-chiles-lithium-industry",{"_uid":557,"date":558,"tags":559,"editor":563,"content":573,"excerpt":739,"featured":50,"reporter":740,"_editable":744,"component":745,"seo_title":553,"categories":746,"visibility":755,"author_company":49,"featured_image":756,"seo_description":739,"author_full_name":49,"author_job_title":49,"formattedDate":761,"formattedArticleDate":762},"24243832-b4a6-4a85-ada8-aa2f32a44eb6","2018-02-23 00:00",[560],{"slug":561,"name":562},"chile","Chile",[564],{"slug":565,"name":566,"content":567},"didi-bostock","Didi Bostock",{"job_title":568,"image":569,"bio":571,"linkedin":572},"Editor - Energy Transition & Economics",{"filename":570},"https://a.storyblok.com/f/287943243085208/512x512/2c5ca5c1a3/didi-bostock.jpeg","Didi is the Energy Transition & Economics Editor at Benchmark, covering a broad range of markets across the energy transition. His remit spans from downstream sectors such as BESS and EVs, through to midstream such as new technologies and battery production, to upstream critical minerals mining. He also leads on financial analysis across these supply chains, alongside in-depth policy analysis.\n","https://www.linkedin.com/in/didi-bostock-656342198/",{"type":574,"content":575},"doc",[576,583,588,593,598,603,608,613,618,623,628,633,640,645,650,655,660,665,668,673,678,683,688,693,696,701,706,711,716,719,724,729,734],{"type":577,"attrs":578,"content":579},"paragraph",{"textAlign":49},[580],{"text":581,"type":582},"Lithium liftoff: Chile votes in new president that brings clarity for SQM, boosts Atacama expansion plans and usher in changes for CORFO","text",{"type":577,"attrs":584,"content":585},{"textAlign":49},[586],{"text":587,"type":582},"Paul Harris ",{"type":577,"attrs":589,"content":590},{"textAlign":49},[591],{"text":592,"type":582},"Chile has turned to a familiar face for a new era. It is an era which its domestic lithium producer, SQM, will want to play a major role – with the rise of electric vehicles and the drastic need for new lithium supply – but has been stifled from doing so.",{"type":577,"attrs":594,"content":595},{"textAlign":49},[596],{"text":597,"type":582},"For the last 3 years, Chile has been in the throws of a lithium civil war between its leading producer, SQM SA, and CORFO, the government’s economic development group.",{"type":577,"attrs":599,"content":600},{"textAlign":49},[601],{"text":602,"type":582},"This high profile spat which delved back into to the days of Chile’s dictator, Augusto Pinochet, has been as well document as it has been unresolved. In Q4, however, the solution for SQM and the lithium industry has come from the people who voted in pro-business candidate and former president, Sebastián Piñera, in a presidential run off that will commence in January 2018.",{"type":577,"attrs":604,"content":605},{"textAlign":49},[606],{"text":607,"type":582},"The new hierarchy has brought an almost immediate resolution to SQM’s argument with CORFO with a new extension of the group’s lithium license in the Atacama to 216,000 tpa by 2030 (Explored more on p.22).",{"type":577,"attrs":609,"content":610},{"textAlign":49},[611],{"text":612,"type":582},"Piñera, a highly successful business entrepreneur prior to his excursion into politics, is expected to adopt pro-business policies. Initial sounds from his campaign headquarters following his electoral victory on Sunday 17th December are about consensus building and creating a pan-political platform to facilitate his government overcoming many of the issues facing Chile today.",{"type":577,"attrs":614,"content":615},{"textAlign":49},[616],{"text":617,"type":582},"Chilean politics is fragmented and as Piñera gathered the various right-leaning factions under his Vamos Chile party, they will be expecting spoils for helping him to occupy the La Moneda seat of government in the form of posts in government, heads of ministries and state agencies.",{"type":577,"attrs":619,"content":620},{"textAlign":49},[621],{"text":622,"type":582},"Piñera lacks a majority in both Chile’s lower and upper houses so he will be forced to make compromises and build consensus which will inevitably limit his ability to get things done, particularly given that the rivalry between the conservatives and liberals will be played out within his own government.",{"type":577,"attrs":624,"content":625},{"textAlign":49},[626],{"text":627,"type":582},"One only has to look at the government he will replace to see how spoils can colour governance outcomes. The government of outgoing president Michelle Bachelet was much more left-leaning than during her first term due to the fundamental support she received from the Communist Party.",{"type":577,"attrs":629,"content":630},{"textAlign":49},[631],{"text":632,"type":582},"This lead to a focus on social aspects, empowering environmental authorities and strengthening worker rights, amongst other things. Bachelet II was a very different beast to Bachelet I.",{"type":634,"attrs":635,"content":637},"heading",{"level":636,"textAlign":49},3,[638],{"text":639,"type":582},"Mining clarity, CORFO changes",{"type":577,"attrs":641,"content":642},{"textAlign":49},[643],{"text":644,"type":582},"Piñera is coming to power in a very different scenario than his previous term which began in 2010 – when he took office then the commodities supercycle in full swing.",{"type":577,"attrs":646,"content":647},{"textAlign":49},[648],{"text":649,"type":582},"Chile was brimming with confidence and awash with copper money as the copper price topped out at US$4.60 a pound in February 2011, providing his treasury with the funds to contemplate significant infrastructure investments.",{"type":577,"attrs":651,"content":652},{"textAlign":49},[653],{"text":654,"type":582},"But shortly after coming to power in 2010, Chile was hit by a massive earthquake that destroyed a lot of infrastructure and meant some of his investment plans were diverted to rebuilding. He was also in office throughout the rescue of 33 trapped miners after 70 days underground following a mining accident.",{"type":577,"attrs":656,"content":657},{"textAlign":49},[658],{"text":659,"type":582},"The money sloshing about Chile back then intensified distribution pressures and resulted in extensive protests by students calling for free education and mine workers and contractors demanding higher rewards.",{"type":577,"attrs":661,"content":662},{"textAlign":49},[663],{"text":664,"type":582},"The student protests in 2011 saw Piñera’s public approval ebb to the extent that he became the least popular Chilean leader since dictator General Augusto Pinochet. Chile is a fast maturing economy, and showing early signs of NIMBY (not in my back yard). Environmental compliance and enforcement is getting tougher with larger fines being handed out for infractions.",{"type":577,"attrs":666,"content":667},{"textAlign":49},[],{"type":577,"attrs":669,"content":670},{"textAlign":49},[671],{"text":672,"type":582},"Environmental permitting is getting more rigorous and time-consuming, and communities are becoming more vocal in their demands relating to mining projects. The rejection of an environmental license for the Dominga iron ore and copper project in August is a case in point and would have been unthinkable during Piñera’s first term.",{"type":577,"attrs":674,"content":675},{"textAlign":49},[676],{"text":677,"type":582},"For lithium, there is great expectation about who president-elect Piñera will name as the head of investment promotion agency CORFO. Current executive vice-president of CORFO is Eduardo Bitran, a career public servant, Bachelet loyalist and arguably the person that has been the sea-anchor on the growth of lithium production in Chile, or more specifically, from the Atacama Salar.",{"type":577,"attrs":679,"content":680},{"textAlign":49},[681],{"text":682,"type":582},"Bitran, appointed by Bachelet in March 2014, single-handedly stymied the possibility of SQM being able to expand its production quota, which means the company will have maxed-out its allotted production years before its concessions expire.",{"type":577,"attrs":684,"content":685},{"textAlign":49},[686],{"text":687,"type":582},"The new agreement between SQM and CORFO sees the quota increase to nearly five fold its present output. CORFO’s former position regarding SQM means that Chile has lost significant ground to Australia in terms of lithium production in recent years, and has seen the boom in exploration largely occur in the salars of Argentina rather than in Chile.",{"type":577,"attrs":689,"content":690},{"textAlign":49},[691],{"text":692,"type":582},"Orocobre, Lithium Americas and now Lithium X Energy have all obtained substantial investments to advance and develop lithium projects in Argentina, and attracted large capital sums from Asia as companies involved in the lithium battery supply chain seek to lockdown raw material supplies.",{"type":577,"attrs":694,"content":695},{"textAlign":49},[],{"type":577,"attrs":697,"content":698},{"textAlign":49},[699],{"text":700,"type":582},"Such investments have bypassed Chile. The most recent investment announcement in mid-December saw Nextview New Energy Lion Hong Kong Ltd enter into a definitive agreement to acquire Lithium X for its Sal de Los Angeles brine project in Salta, Argentina.",{"type":577,"attrs":702,"content":703},{"textAlign":49},[704],{"text":705,"type":582},"Whilst Argentina has become a shining light in the lithium exploration rush, Chile has been left in the starting blocks to the extent that SQM, Chile’s largest lithium producer, has invested in projects in both Australia and Argentina.",{"type":577,"attrs":707,"content":708},{"textAlign":49},[709],{"text":710,"type":582},"What lithium exploration there is in Chile, by companies such as Wealth Minerals and Bearing Lithium, has so far amounted to securing land packages and early-stage exploration as the structure of Chile’s regulatory regime for lithium is less appealing than in other countries.",{"type":577,"attrs":712,"content":713},{"textAlign":49},[714],{"text":715,"type":582},"Chile sees lithium as a strategic resource and through development promotion agency CORFO that administers much of the lithium resources, Chile wants significant project participation in any development.",{"type":577,"attrs":717,"content":718},{"textAlign":49},[],{"type":577,"attrs":720,"content":721},{"textAlign":49},[722],{"text":723,"type":582},"Under Bachelet, CORFO has also shown itself to be a very political beast that engages in antagonistic relationships with the private sector, and certainly not the type of partner that many explorers and developers are looking for.",{"type":577,"attrs":725,"content":726},{"textAlign":49},[727],{"text":728,"type":582},"Bitran made CORFO’s dispute with SQM political, centering on major shareholder and former company president Julio Ponce, due to his links to the former military dictatorship. While Bitran made it clear that a resolution of the dispute and increase in the production quota is not possible whilst Ponce retains a position of influence within SQM, it appears the new government has overruled and undermined his position. However, with a new government coming in, it seems likely that Bitran will be replaced as CORFO head, and almost certainly with someone that does not have the same political differences with Ponce.",{"type":577,"attrs":730,"content":731},{"textAlign":49},[732],{"text":733,"type":582},"However, whilst Chile is important to the world of lithium, lithium is less important to Chile, and the income the country could derive from the battery material pales into insignificance compared to its copper income.",{"type":577,"attrs":735,"content":736},{"textAlign":49},[737],{"text":738,"type":582},"Will Piñera seek to roll back the lithium structure implemented by the Bachelet government to allow the sector to develop and flourish like any other mineral? Change is possible but with limited political reward the question remains as to how quickly it will prevail.","Lithium liftoff: Chile votes in new president that brings clarity for SQM, boosts Atacama expansion plans and usher in changes for CORFO Paul Harris Chile has turned to a familiar face for a new era. It is an era which its domestic lithium producer, SQM, will want to play a major role – with the […]",[741],{"slug":565,"name":566,"content":742},{"job_title":568,"image":743,"bio":571,"linkedin":572},{"filename":570},"\u003C!--#storyblok#{\"name\": \"article\", \"space\": \"\", \"uid\": \"24243832-b4a6-4a85-ada8-aa2f32a44eb6\", \"id\": \"\"}-->","article",[747,750,753],{"slug":748,"name":749},"batteries","Batteries",{"slug":751,"name":752},"critical-minerals","Critical Minerals",{"slug":754,"name":8},"lithium","private",{"id":49,"alt":757,"name":757,"focus":757,"title":757,"source":757,"filename":758,"copyright":757,"fieldtype":759,"meta_data":760,"is_external_url":51},"","https://a.storyblok.com/f/287943243085208/b950b1f3c8/bm-5012601195-843104ce08-o.jpg","asset",{"alt":757,"title":757,"source":757,"copyright":757},"Feb 23, 2018","23rd February 2018",[],[],1789748881108]