Finance Minister: Companies Express Interest in Lithium Projects in Chile

Chilean Minister of Finance Mario Marcel said last week that the country had received significant interest from international companies regarding 26 salt flats opened up for private investment in April.

Marcel said during the Latin American Cities Conference, hosted by the Americas Society/Council of the Americas, that Chile received 88 expressions of interest for lithium projects across 26 salt flats.

Fifty-four companies from 10 countries expressed interest, according to Marcel.

"This will mean that we will know which salt flats (companies) are interested in, and we will be able to develop a competitive bidding process for lithium exploitation contracts in Chile during the course of this year. For those who thought we were behind, we are quickly catching up," said Marcel. "We are not going to increase our (lithium) production in 10 or 15 years; we will increase it next year as a result of the agreement between SQM and Codelco."

This interest from international companies is due to the opening of 26 salt flats for private investments, which was announced by the Chilean government in March. Through this policy, private companies can develop these areas independently or seek joint ventures with state companies.

The application window to submit an expression of interest in these areas ended on June 18.

The process is part of Chile's national lithium strategy announced last year. As part of it, the government declared the involvement of state companies, through joint ventures, with private companies in specific salt flats such as the Salar of Atacama, while leaving others for private development.

The involvement of state companies in Atacama kicked off negotiations for joint ventures between Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile (SQM) (NYSE:SQM) (Santiago, Chile) and Albemarle Corporation (NYSE:ALB) (Charlotte, North Carolina) with state company Codelco (Santiago). SQM and Codelco have already agreed to create a joint venture that will start operations next year.

The national lithium strategy also contemplates the protection of 38 salt flats from exploitation, representing about 30% of the country's salt flats.

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