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lithium growth challenged by political uncertainty","chiles-lithium-growth-challenged-by-political-uncertainty","article/chiles-lithium-growth-challenged-by-political-uncertainty",{"_uid":557,"date":558,"tags":559,"editor":563,"content":573,"excerpt":781,"featured":51,"reporter":782,"_editable":786,"component":787,"seo_title":553,"categories":788,"visibility":794,"author_company":49,"featured_image":795,"seo_description":781,"author_full_name":49,"author_job_title":49,"formattedDate":799,"formattedArticleDate":800},"9f69a4e9-c0c2-462e-a73a-1d842b9ee273","2022-12-06 00:00",[560],{"slug":561,"name":562},"chile","Chile",[564],{"slug":565,"name":566,"content":567},"matthew-bird","Matthew Bird",{"job_title":568,"image":569,"bio":571,"linkedin":572},"Senior Editor - Supply Chains & Data Visualisation",{"filename":570},"https://a.storyblok.com/f/287943243085208/512x512/14738033ec/matthew-bird.jpeg","Matthew writes, edits and produces content for Benchmark Intelligence and Benchmark Source across the whole mine to grid supply chain. He also acts as a liaison to the press. He has a PhD in electrochemistry from the University of Nottingham.","https://www.linkedin.com/in/birdmatthew/",{"type":574,"content":575},"doc",[576,583,588,593,598,603,608,617,624,629,634,639,644,649,654,659,664,669,674,679,684,689,694,699,706,711,716,721,726,731,736,741,746,751,756,761,766,771,776],{"type":577,"attrs":578,"content":579},"paragraph",{"textAlign":49},[580],{"text":581,"type":582},"Nine months into office, Chile’s 36-year old president Gabriel Boric has yet to announce a formal strategy for the country’s lithium sector, confusing some investors and leaving neighbouring Argentina set to catch-up as the region’s largest producer. ","text",{"type":577,"attrs":584,"content":585},{"textAlign":49},[586],{"text":587,"type":582},"Boric, a former student leader, who campaigned on pledges to create a state-owned lithium company, will accomplish that goal in three years, Chilean officials told Benchmark in October. ",{"type":577,"attrs":589,"content":590},{"textAlign":49},[591],{"text":592,"type":582},"Yet those plans have yet to materialise and growth in the lithium industry in Chile is still hampered by the lack of new expansions outside of the two largest companies, SQM and Albemarle. Plans to allow state-owned copper miner Codelco to produce lithium have yet to bear fruit and have raised concerns about private companies being pushed out of the industry. ",{"type":577,"attrs":594,"content":595},{"textAlign":49},[596],{"text":597,"type":582},"Benchmark forecasts if all planned capacity comes to market, then Argentina could overtake Chile by 2028 in terms of lithium production. Argentina is set to see a more than fourteen-fold increase in supply, to 534,000 tonnes LCE by 2030, due to a number of new projects from Chinese investors as well as mining giant Rio Tinto.",{"type":577,"attrs":599,"content":600},{"textAlign":49},[601],{"text":602,"type":582},"Chile, however, is unlikely to see significant new players in the industry.  ",{"type":577,"attrs":604,"content":605},{"textAlign":49},[606],{"text":607,"type":582},"“The main growth [in Chile] is going to be from SQM and Albemarle,” Cameron Perks, an analyst at Benchmark, said. ",{"type":577,"attrs":609,"content":610},{"textAlign":49},[611],{"type":612,"attrs":613},"image",{"id":49,"alt":614,"src":615,"title":49,"source":49,"copyright":49,"meta_data":616},"","https://a.storyblok.com/f/287943243085208/e6403f5bec/bm-fraser-chile-institute.png",{},{"type":618,"attrs":619,"content":621},"heading",{"level":620,"textAlign":49},4,[622],{"text":623,"type":582},"Pinochet’s legacy ",{"type":577,"attrs":625,"content":626},{"textAlign":49},[627],{"text":628,"type":582},"Lithium was declared a “strategic” mineral in Chile in 1979 under the government of former dictator Augusto Pinochet, due to its use in the nuclear industry. Its production was reserved for the state. ",{"type":577,"attrs":630,"content":631},{"textAlign":49},[632],{"text":633,"type":582},"SQM and Albemarle extract lithium from the country’s Salar de Atacama salt flat under leases with the government, which specify production quotas as well as other conditions such as support for local communities. SQM’s lease in the Salar de Atacama runs out in 2030, whereas Albemarle’s lease lasts until 2043. ",{"type":577,"attrs":635,"content":636},{"textAlign":49},[637],{"text":638,"type":582},"New projects have to obtain a special lithium operation contract (CEOL) from the mining ministry to produce lithium, as well as approval from the nuclear commission. Yet an October 2021 auction of these rights was suspended by a Chilean court just days after the rights were awarded. ",{"type":577,"attrs":640,"content":641},{"textAlign":49},[642],{"text":643,"type":582},"“The constitutional mandate that keeps lithium a strategic product – I don’t see that changing in the near future,” Patricia Vasquez, a global fellow at the Wilson Center, said. “This president has been talking about creating a lithium governmental company – so they are going in the opposite direction.”",{"type":577,"attrs":645,"content":646},{"textAlign":49},[647],{"text":648,"type":582},"Chile’s government is grappling with how to promote sustainable lithium mining in the country, since Boric came to power in March. He has said he will demand “higher environmental standards” for mining companies, but that he will stick to the law and create certainty for investors. ",{"type":577,"attrs":650,"content":651},{"textAlign":49},[652],{"text":653,"type":582},"“The problem is Boric needs to deliver for the people who voted for him,” Vasquez said. ",{"type":577,"attrs":655,"content":656},{"textAlign":49},[657],{"text":658,"type":582},"Officials say Boric will seek to create a public-private partnership company to look at how to add value to the country’s lithium production, for example by producing battery materials in the country. The country could take a minority stake, they say. ",{"type":577,"attrs":660,"content":661},{"textAlign":49},[662],{"text":663,"type":582},"Yet so far, few details have emerged. Marcela Hernando, Chile’s mining minister, told a Benchmark event in October that the government would partner with companies that will produce lithium “in an open way,” with transparency. It would also create a lithium institute for research on the salt flats. ",{"type":577,"attrs":665,"content":666},{"textAlign":49},[667],{"text":668,"type":582},"“Our economic vision is that Chile needs to be a world leader in sustainable responsible mining production,” she said. ",{"type":618,"attrs":670,"content":671},{"level":620,"textAlign":49},[672],{"text":673,"type":582},"The state advances",{"type":577,"attrs":675,"content":676},{"textAlign":49},[677],{"text":678,"type":582},"Meanwhile, concerns are growing about the state’s role in lithium. Last month news reports said that state-owned copper miner Codelco would be the only company eligible to produce lithium from the country’s Salar de Maricunga salt flat, where private company Lithium Power International has been developing a project. ",{"type":577,"attrs":680,"content":681},{"textAlign":49},[682],{"text":683,"type":582},"In 2018 Codelco was awarded a CEOL and approval from the Chilean Nuclear Commission to produce lithium in Maricunga. Yet the El Mercurio newspaper reported that Codelco had applied for its CEOL permit to expand to cover the entire Maricunga deposit in Chile’s Atacama region.  ",{"type":577,"attrs":685,"content":686},{"textAlign":49},[687],{"text":688,"type":582},"Lithium Power International said in a statement that its concessions and permitting according to Chilean law is “solid.” ",{"type":577,"attrs":690,"content":691},{"textAlign":49},[692],{"text":693,"type":582},"“LPI [Lithium Power International] has absolute confidence in the Chilean legal system and in its strict compliance by its authorities,” it said. ",{"type":577,"attrs":695,"content":696},{"textAlign":49},[697],{"text":698,"type":582},"The company says half of its mining concessions were obtained before the country’s 1979 designation of lithium as strategic, meaning they only need nuclear commission approval and do not need a CEOL application. ",{"type":577,"attrs":700,"content":701},{"textAlign":49},[702],{"type":612,"attrs":703},{"id":49,"alt":614,"src":704,"title":49,"source":49,"copyright":49,"meta_data":705},"https://a.storyblok.com/f/287943243085208/1e056e2cbc/bm-if-all-planned-capacity-comes-to-market-then-argentina-could-overtake-chile-by-2028.png",{},{"type":618,"attrs":707,"content":708},{"level":620,"textAlign":49},[709],{"text":710,"type":582},"New private players  ",{"type":577,"attrs":712,"content":713},{"textAlign":49},[714],{"text":715,"type":582},"Another new player, CleanTech Lithium, listed in London in March, just after Boric was sworn in and as Chile’s Pinochet-era constitution was being re-written. It warned in its listing document that politics could result “in the Company having its projects nationalised.” ",{"type":577,"attrs":717,"content":718},{"textAlign":49},[719],{"text":720,"type":582},"Since then, however, those concerns have eased following a rejection by voters of a proposed left-leaning constitution in September. ",{"type":577,"attrs":722,"content":723},{"textAlign":49},[724],{"text":725,"type":582},"Aldo Boitano, the company’s chief executive, said the Chilean government wanted the involvement of private companies in the lithium sector and was keen to stimulate private investment given the current global environment. ",{"type":577,"attrs":727,"content":728},{"textAlign":49},[729],{"text":730,"type":582},"“They want to be more involved but they know the private sector is the one that has the knowledge and the capital,” he said. “Politics are one thing for the people who voted and another thing for really running the country. They need money to do all the social things.” ",{"type":577,"attrs":732,"content":733},{"textAlign":49},[734],{"text":735,"type":582},"In January the company submitted a CEOL application to the mining ministry for both of its projects in Chile, but these have not yet been approved. It plans to use direct lithium extraction (DLE) rather than large evaporation ponds, using technology from China’s SunResin. ",{"type":618,"attrs":737,"content":738},{"level":620,"textAlign":49},[739],{"text":740,"type":582},"SQM’s looming 2030 deadline ",{"type":577,"attrs":742,"content":743},{"textAlign":49},[744],{"text":745,"type":582},"While Boric has promised legal certainty for existing mining contracts, SQM still faces the expiration of its lithium lease in the Salar de Atacama at the end of the decade. ",{"type":577,"attrs":747,"content":748},{"textAlign":49},[749],{"text":750,"type":582},"Previous negotiations with the government body Corfo in 2018 resulted in a number of financial and other conditions for SQM, including royalty rates as high as 40% of the price of lithium, as well as committed funding to local communities and on research and development. ",{"type":577,"attrs":752,"content":753},{"textAlign":49},[754],{"text":755,"type":582},"In the first nine months of this year SQM contributed more than $3.6 billion to the government, due to high lithium prices. It has told Chilean media that this is more than Codelco, the copper producer. ",{"type":577,"attrs":757,"content":758},{"textAlign":49},[759],{"text":760,"type":582},"Yet the uncertainty of the 2030 deadline makes it hard to make large investments without clarity. ",{"type":577,"attrs":762,"content":763},{"textAlign":49},[764],{"text":765,"type":582},"In September, SQM announced a $1.5 billion investment proposal to increase the sustainability of its lithium production by using direct lithium extraction technologies and reinjecting water to the Salar. The company would also build a seawater desalination plant to replace water evaporated from the Salar as well as a solar power plant to provide the energy for the DLE process, it said. ",{"type":577,"attrs":767,"content":768},{"textAlign":49},[769],{"text":770,"type":582},"The plan would reduce the amount of brine SQM extracts from the Salar and eventually create “water-usage neutral” production, the company said. ",{"type":577,"attrs":772,"content":773},{"textAlign":49},[774],{"text":775,"type":582},"But the company made clear its plan would be dependent on negotiations with Corfo and noted that “the current terms of the contract between SQM and Corfo impose certain limitations on medium and long-term investments.” ",{"type":577,"attrs":777,"content":778},{"textAlign":49},[779],{"text":780,"type":582},"“We have no doubt that in a dialogue aimed at seeking the benefits of all parties, it is feasible to find a meeting point that adds value to all those involved,” it said.","Nine months into office, Chile’s 36-year old president Gabriel Boric has yet to announce a formal strategy for the country’s lithium sector, confusing some investors and leaving neighbouring Argentina set to catch-up as the region’s largest producer. Boric, a former student leader, who campaigned on pledges to create a state-owned lithium company, will accomplish that […]",[783],{"slug":565,"name":566,"content":784},{"job_title":568,"image":785,"bio":571,"linkedin":572},{"filename":570},"\u003C!--#storyblok#{\"name\": \"article\", \"space\": \"\", \"uid\": \"9f69a4e9-c0c2-462e-a73a-1d842b9ee273\", \"id\": \"\"}-->","article",[789,792],{"slug":790,"name":791},"critical-minerals","Critical Minerals",{"slug":793,"name":8},"lithium","private",{"id":49,"alt":614,"name":614,"focus":614,"title":614,"source":614,"filename":796,"copyright":614,"fieldtype":797,"meta_data":798,"is_external_url":51},"https://a.storyblok.com/f/287943243085208/064497e89e/bm-chile-palace.jpg","asset",{"alt":614,"title":614,"source":614,"copyright":614},"Dec 06, 2022","6th December 2022",[],[],1792747647441]