Glencore to invest $200m in battery recycling firm Li-Cycle 

The $400 million plant expansion, once complete, would allow the Chinese-backed SQM to eventually produce as much as 180,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate a year from its Atacama salt flat operations.

Southern Copper had not made an offer on the lithium project in Mexico, but there's also a Chinese company that's interested.

The world’s No.3 producer of the metal used in electric vehicle batteries said the candidates will be “fair” and “responsible toward shareholders”.

Cauchari is now Argentina’s second largest development project.

Foreign platinum and diamond miners have been restricted to only 49 percent ownership of their Zimbabwe operations by the black economic empowerment law.

Codelco will continue to develop its lithium assets, including committing $57 million for further exploration.

Codelco’s lithium projects, once thought a shoo-in to boost global supply and lower prices, have largely fallen off forecasts.

A hybrid solar power system will provide electricity to the company's project center while reducing CO2 emissions by 147 tonnes annually and the costs for fuel by $250,000 per year.

The 2,932-hectare project encompasses a full salar.