Chilean Chamber of Lithium Mining asks to "liberate" exploitation and warns that current policy "is expropriatory"
Gremio asks that private companies be allowed to produce, since neither Codelco nor Enami are in a financial position to do so.
By: Valeria Ibarra | Posted: Tuesday, July 11, 2023 at 04:00 a.m.T+ T-
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Formed by mining companies that have 60% of the country's lithium assets, the Chilean Chamber of Lithium Mining has had a new boost thanks to the best prices for the mineral . Although they looked forward to the National Lithium Strategy allowing them to exploit the compound, they declared themselves disappointed with this policy, since, in the opinion of the union's president, Luis Gallardo, "it is a covert expropriation" since it does not allow the exploitation of the mineral by private entrepreneurs.
"Deep down there would be a covert expropriation criterion, because it says that in order to develop our projects we have to ally ourselves with Codelco and Enami," the leader said, adding that neither of the two companies has the financial backing to develop this mining . "We know perfectly well what is happening with Codelco: it has a multimillion-dollar drag debt" and "Enami is also in very disastrous economic conditions, because most of the plants are without maintenance and are half-producing."
What this union asks is that the law or its interpretation be modified in order to exploit lithium, which is present in mining properties along with other compounds. For example, having permits to extract rock salt in certain salt flats, there is also lithium in them and they cannot remove it. "The curious thing is that, by paying exploitation patents, we cannot exploit," said Gallardo.
The leader was also critical of the Lithium Commission, which was the instance prior to the public policy of mineral extraction. “ In that commission there were more politicians than people who knew about lithium and even I had the opportunity to participate in two or three meetings and I didn't want to continue because it was just another political meeting. I asked some questions to the people who were supposed to be the lithium technicians who were participating in this commission and they didn't even know what lithium was,” he reported.
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legal detail
Can lithium be exploited from these belongings? The mineral was declared non-concessible in 1979, but there are permits that date from earlier and others that are later.
What happens if a permit is obtained to extract another mineral -rock salt, for example- and lithium comes out along with this compound? The lawyer Marcelo Tavano explained that "when a deposit is being exploited and the presence of a non-concessible mineral is found in an important part, in this case lithium, a complaint must be made to the State and the State has the possibility of buying that ore or say sell it on my behalf”, he specified.
For this, the Mining Code establishes "an obligation to the State to reimburse before delivery the expenses incurred by the producer to carry out the reduction and delivery, and must also pay for the modifications and complementary works that may be necessary to carry out to operate" , he detailed. With this, "it should be possible to exploit it without major problems," said Tavano.
In Chile there are two types of lithium deposits, he explained. The first -the Andean- is made up of aqueous brines in lakes such as Atacama, Maricunga, Pedernales and 10 others of lesser importance. The second are the dry clays, which are in Llamara, Gran Salar and others, which are the result of the evaporation of what was previously a lake, since due to global warming the water disappeared, leaving residues such as the formation of deep crusts. highly mineralized, among which is lithium.
Entity represents owners of property rights in all salt flats, except the Atacama
The Chilean Chamber of Lithium Mining brings together medium-sized mining entrepreneurs with rights to the various mineralized salt flats that are located in the north of the country. These large resources constitute 60% of Chile's total lithium reserves and the remaining 40% is owned by the public sector , which Corfo has delivered to SQM and Albemarle in a concession that runs until 2030 and 2043, respectively.
This union has been fighting to regulate an exploitation and commercialization procedure that allows it to protect its legitimate rights as owners of mining rights, on which they pay the respective patents.
Currently, the chamber is made up of a board of directors made up of its president, Luis Gallardo, holder of the mining rights of the Minera Camila company in the Salar de Llamara, with an area of 6,000 hectares. The union's vice president is Francisco Javier Errázuriz , owner of properties in Maricunga and Quebrada de Peine, with 20,000 hectares, who is a partner of the Asian fund Simbalik to develop the first of these accounts.
The other vice president is Manuel Viera, owner of one of the main mining consulting companies, Metaproject. Its general secretary is Ernesto Esquivel, owner of land in Tierra Amarilla, while the prosecutor is the lawyer Marcelo Tavano.
Other medium-sized owners that stand out in the entity are Eugenio Bernales, owner of rights in Maricunga, Pedernales and Laguna Verde; Juan Hevia, owner of 12,000 hectares in the north of Llamara and the Canadian company World Mineral, owner of 41,000 hectares on the west side of the Salar de Atacama. The chamber also has associations as members; among them, the Association Expert Measurers; the Mining Chamber, Andinometal, the Mining Association and Mining Investments.
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