LPI - The Next Lithium Producer in Chile, page-57

From Diario Financiero:
I read it as positive.

Mining Minister is open to private participation in a national lithium company
In a meeting with deputies, Marcela Hernando was less optimistic that the development could be assumed by state-owned Codelco.

The Chilean government will evaluate all the alternatives regarding the figure that will be managed by a national company for the exploitation of lithium promised in President **riel Boric's program, Mining Minister Marcela Hernando said on Wednesday.

Currently in the country, the second largest producer of the key metal for electric car batteries, only the private giants Albemarle and SQM operate with facilities in the rich Salar de Atacama.

"We are not closed to any of the alternatives, we are going to evaluate them all in such a way that it is the most profitable and the most convenient," Hernando said in a meeting with deputies.

During the presidential campaign, the recently inaugurated president said that Chile could not commit the "historic mistake" of privatizing its resources again and reiterated his interest in creating the National Lithium Company.

Hernando explained that, although there is currently no experience in the ministry on the subject, a special group will be formed to study the scope of the initiative.

"We are thinking of a company that is not necessarily a company that produces cars or that produces all these things, but one that is in charge of marketing and capturing value here and that can be in partnership with the public-private sector as well," added in his exposition. "It may be that finally it is a private entity, but the one who has to define that is the State," he stressed.

Codelco paper

The official was less optimistic that the development could be assumed by the state-owned Codelco, the world's largest copper producer, although it is also making progress in evaluating a lithium project in the Salar de Maricunga.

"I see a certain resistance on the part of Codelco itself, which does not consider it part of its business, but we are going to see with the pilot that is in Maricunga, and it could be ENAMI as well, we are not closed to that," he assured.

Currently, the state-owned National Mining Company (ENAMI) is in charge of consolidating and processing the copper produced by the small and medium-sized local industry.