On Wednesday, Chile awarded two companies, one Chinese and one national – new to the country’s market – a tender for lithium extraction for 121 million dollars, reported the Chilean Ministry of Mining.
The award left out the other three bidders, including the world’s largest lithium operators, the Chilean Chemical and Mining Society of Chile (SQM), which extracts 17% of this metal in the world, and the American Albemarle, which produces 19 percent.
The tender generated controversy for having been carried out three months before the end of the term of the conservative Sebastián Piñera and after the presidential elections that proclaimed the leftist Gabriel Boric as president elect.
“The Ministry of Mining notified the award of the bidding process to boost lithium production in the country, opting to deliver two of the five quotas that were offered, to the companies BYD Chile SpA (China) and Servicios y Operaciones Mineras del Norte SA (Chilean),” the mining portfolio said in a statement.
Each company will have a quota of 80,000 tons -which represents 1.8% of the known lithium reserves in Chile– with a term of seven years to carry out the geological exploration, the studies and the development of the project.
The contract provides another 20 years for the exploitation of this light metal, considered key for the development of electric vehicles.
The tender does not establish the place of exploitation.
According to the Ministry of Mining, until 2016 Chile was the world’s largest producer of lithium, with 37% of the market, but today it occupies second place -behind Australia- with 32%. If the country fails to increase its production, by 2030 its share would fall to 17 percent.