Industrial Minerals


Chile to auction contracts for lithium production – report

08 February 2012

by Mark Watts

World’s number one producer opens up for investment to compete with rival producers

Keywords: Chile, lithium, Atacama, SQM, Chemetall, Li3 Energy, Salares Lithium

Chile, the world’s biggest supplier of lithium, is set to auction contracts for the rights to explore and produce the mineral in order to compete with rival producers, according to national press reports.

Chile’s lithium resources — in the Salar de Atacama and other salt flats — are among the best in the world, but the country’s strict laws on lithium extraction have seen Argentina, Australia, China Canada...