The company in March announced an ambitious plan to increase its production capacity roughly fivefold to 600,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent a year.

Daniel Jadue, the current front-runner in polls for November’s elections in Chile, wants to align mining rules with Peru, Argentina and Bolivia so they don’t compete for investments.

Australia has refused to match commitments by the US, UK and other countries targeting net zero emissions by 2050.

Roskill published an analysis with its view on the study that claims to have found an economically viable system to extract high-purity lithium from seawater.

The resource is "strategically important" because it requires smaller evaporation ponds to put the project into production, the company says.