Lithium: Codelco qualifies as an artificial claim by Minera Salar Blanco
Cuprera maintains in a judicial brief that the company's share of private capital is untimely, since the six months established by law would have passed
http://www.mch.cl/2018/03/28/litio-codelco-califica-artificial-reclamo-minera-salar-blanco/
Translation with google:
(El Mercurio) Hardly, state miner Codelco responded to the economic amparo appeal filed by Minera Salar Blanco -linked to businessman Martín Borda and foreign capital- to the Court of Appeals. In the letter the private firm alleged irregularities in the delivery of permits to exploit lithium from the Salar de Maricunga to the cuprera.
In the document of 36 pages entered yesterday to the Judicial Power, the state maintains that the action presented by Salar Blanco has an "instrumental, unfounded and extemporaneous character".
The company linked to Martín Borda stated in his appeal that the entry into the lithium business by the state company escapes from its main line, which is copper, so the authorization given by the Ministry of Mining to exploit lithium from the Salar de Maricunga is inappropriate.
The state company said that the exploitation of lithium is within its remit and that, in fact, in the national policy that imposed the State guidelines to treat this mineral, the company was expressly entrusted to develop projects in its belongings.
The letter indicates that the subsidiary created by Codelco establishes a business decision, "within the framework of the National Lithium Policy and attended to its condition of ownership of mining properties, which allows operations to be developed in the Maricunga salt area with a view to eventual incorporation of private shareholders, through a figure of public-private partnership ".
Another of the mining company's arguments is that Salar Blanco's appeal is untimely, because they had a period of six months to file the action since the facts were taken into account. According to the state, the private firm has known Codelco's position for a long time.
In this sense, they maintain that Minera Salar Blanco can not claim the act as illegal, since the same company participated in the search process for Codelco's strategic partner. Likewise, one of its partners (Li3) actively participated in the creation of the National Lithium Policy, in which it never opposed that Codelco could develop a project in the Salar de Maricunga.
They add that the "present constitutional action is nothing but a reiteration of allegations that were already known, resolved and rejected at the administrative headquarters, by the Comptroller General of the Republic."
