new interview with the Minister of Mining .here is a quoteThe...

new interview with the Minister of Mining .

here is a quote

The Minister of Mining, Marcela Hernando , said this Monday that she hopes that this year the project that allows the creation of a state company to regularize the use of lithium will enter Congress this year , but she stated that the indigenous communities and all the involved.“

The company is a chapter within the lithium policy. There are many initiatives or chapters that comprise this initiative. We hope this year to come up with this bill, but obviously it has to be pre-consulted with the indigenous communities and all the participants, it will also be discussed pre-legislatively with the parliamentarians ”, he pointed out on Cooperativa radio .

Sounds like they have been dripping info about the various aspects of the national lithium policy so that when they finally release it, hopefully this month, people dont think of it as new idea and are already partially familiar with the plan. So far I have seen like 3 parts to this National Lithium Policy.

1. So far this month we heard from Willy that they are planning some tenders for exploration. Not really sure what this will look like as there are many players who own land in various salars in chile, So I am guessing they will tender exploration with a requirement that the companies have a prior agreement with local indigenous groups.

2. Now we hear from Marcela that the National Lithium Company which is only one chapter of the National Lithium Policy is going to be legislatively created with pre-legislative dialogue with parliament and local indigenous, and other parties. Previously they have said they were in discussion with many companies as potential partners in the National Lithium Company. Now Marcel sounds like is trying to say that the state owns the lithium so new projects will have to partner with a state company (corfo, cchen, ect.) and that the future national lithium company will be another company that private companies could partner with to exploit lithium. She is hoping to have this legislation passed some time this year. So I am guessing that the announcement of the national lithium policy will include some information about this but probably no offical legislation being released until later in the year. Also I am guessing that the national lithium company will mostly make contracts for exploitation rather than exploration. But that said from her comments I am guessing that there maybe some room alongside the lithium policy announcement for an announcement of a new state company partnership with private company in the lithium space...

3. Also we know that another part of the national lithium policy will be the creation of the Ministry of the Salars (probably called something else). That will be some form of a governance of the Salars and such. Havnt heard much about this, but I am guessing it will focus on sustainable use and management of the salars, like calculating and monitoring the activities of companies on salaras. Probably will have some role in how the state wants to use Direct Lithium Extraction for new projects. Also this new ministry or whatever will likely be the one who tenders out the lithium exploration that Willy was talking about. But just a guess.

4. ??? what do you guys think another part would be if there is such a thing? I am guessing something to incentivize down stream products being associated with mining actives, like local lithium refining and local lithium cathode manufacturing.

Anyways hopefully we hear the whole story soon, for now we are stuck with the drip by drip i guess.