Codelco, SQM ink lithium partnership agreement

Reuters | December 27, 2023 | 1:26 pm Battery Metals Top Companies Latin America Lithium

Chile’s court ruling allows Tianqi to buy stake in lithium miner SQM

Aerial view of the brine pools and processing areas of the Soquimich (SQM) lithium mine on the Atacama salt flat. (Image from: SQM Corporate Presentation.)

Chilean lithium miner SQM and state-run Codelco have reached a memorandum of understanding to form a government-controlled partnership for the future production of the key rechargeable battery metal, the firms said on Wednesday.

The two companies agreed to form a new company in which Codelco will have a majority stake and which will begin a first phase of operations in January 2025, the companies said in statements.

State-controlled public-private partnerships are the key element of President Gabriel Boric’s new lithium mining strategy announced last April aiming to generate more broad-based benefits from surging demand for the ultra-light white metal.

(By Natalia Ramos, Fabian Cambero and Brendan O’Boyle; Editing by David Alire Garcia)