Azure Minerals agrees to $1bn takeover bid from SQM

At the end of the day, companies’ strategic decisions must be aligned with national interests, says Economy Minister Nicolas Grau.

The world's largest producer of lithium wants to grow in Chile and in the Atacama salt flat with new technologies.

The company is “convinced” that its technology and experience “will make it possible to reach reasonable agreements in the interest of the Chilean state.

Black mass is the shredded material that comes from used batteries, which can include lithium, cobalt, and nickel.

The country nationalized its copper sector in 1971, provoking international outrage, particularly in the United States.

Capital needed to achieve results in line with the firm's environmental sustainability goals, which it said also align with the government's lithium strategy.

LC23-51 intersected two lithium pegmatites zones including a 10-metre-wide section of 1.03% lithium oxide at 118 metres drilled depth.  

The new financing vehicle could start next year if the ruling coalition agrees on the funding.

“Money is a coward — it runs away at the first sign of trouble,” the chairman of Ivanhoe Mines said.