press article with more background information on the role of Willy, the state miners, ongoing discussions around Maricunga and MSB, and the new minister. as I said - lots of focus on the Atacama (this is where the jackpot is for Chile, and the strategies and health of the state miners - this obviously affects us in various ways).
"As the National Lithium Strategy announced by President **riel Boric states that all projects have to be associated with the State, the map for the Executive, until now, would be for Codelco to stay in Maricunga and the other salt flats would be managed by the state company Enami."
“Kracht always criticized Pérez de Arce. The fight was such, between Hernando, Kracht and Pérez de Arce, that for that reason they were all removed. But the underlying fight was not Enami's mismanagement or the new works projected for the Paipote refinery, it was the fight for control of lithium in the Atacama Region,” says an expert."
Source from Codelco: "In other words, now we have to advance in the negotiations with SQM, that we are well applied in that, and then it comes to start in Maricunga”, indicates a source from the state copper company."
"The second is the Blanco project, from the Salar Blanco mining company, owned by Australian capital. Initially, the Chilean Martín Borda participated in the property, who is now director of Lithium Power, the Australian company that bought their rights and is now the exclusive owner of the project, who also did not hold an Indigenous Consultation with the Colla communities of Copiapó.“The curious thing is that due to this project, an Indigenous Consultation was made to the communities with which this project has a road impact. Lithium is extracted from Maricunga, which is located in the Copiapó commune. The company plans to extract brine and then lithium by evaporation, and then transport it through the Tierra Amarilla commune”, affirms a specialist close to the Mining negotiations.The Blanco project – as they explain – only has an Indigenous Consultation and equitable distribution of benefits with the indigenous communities of Tierra Amarilla and not with the communities of Copiapó, from where the water from the Maricunga salt flat is extracted and evaporated. For this reason, the Pai Ote community sued them before the Santiago Environmental Court, a trial that is ongoing."
"Everything indicates that the newly arrived duo of the Minister of Mining, Aurora Williams, and the new undersecretary, Suina Chahuán Kim, will have as an immediate challenge to overcome the legal pitfalls of lithium projects in the Environmental Courts, the relationship with indigenous communities , cultivate a good relationship with Pacheco, determine the role of Enami in the salt flats and small lagoons of the Atacama Region and unblock the negotiations paralyzed by the long fight between Hernando, Kracht and Pérez de Arce for lithium."
