Here is my take away I agree that not much as been learned except a couple things. The big one is that CODELCO will be trying to enter Salar de Atacama by renegotiating agreements with SQM before its contract expires in 2030 and before the deadline which is end of year 2027. Also the big focus was on how CODELCO will be the one mostly making the agreement with private companies, until the potential creation of NLC by a passed law, this has a strong emphasis in this policy.
This bodes very well for us at LPI/MSB being the only lithium company that has had a non binding agreements with CODELCO. With the recent article coming from the president of codelco talking about looking to make partnerships in maricunga, And our CEO saying CODELCO will always be a natural partner for LPI. things look very promising. I would argue right now LPI looks stronger than ever before. One reason I say this is because the way the CEO is talking in the
latest company PR "We see a historic opportunity today for Chile, and the Lithium Policy will speed up public-private agreements with real projects such as Minera Salar Blanco in Maricunga, where there is already a CEOL,” explained García-Huidobro.“This will generate new resources for the state and also channel essential resources for the regions where they are located and their communities. We are sure that Minera Salar Blanco will become the third player in the lithium industry in Chile in the short term after more than 35 years.”Seems like the CEO is now focused on how in maricunga there is already a CEOL which I think is what we will be using for projectyo blanco after the detaills in the supreme court case which is now behind us aswell. Its my opinion that by next week we will hear that the ceol is expanding to include our project and we are going to partner with CODELCO on it. I could totally be wrong on this but we will see, either way we are in a very strong position imo.
Today Boric made a speech in Antofagasta region. No new details came out from his speech that I could tell, but there was an article from things the ministers said and another article about the event which sheds more light on where this is all going.
Here is a quote from a article about the event today published on boric's government website. This quote is just one bullet point for what the policy intends to do. Cadastre of lithium deposits for exploration and exploitation, through the delivery of Special Lithium Operation Contracts (CEOL) for exploitation and exploration to State companies with or without association of individuals and exploration CEOL to private companies, which enable them at option preferential exploitation in a public-private partnership in the future.Here is a quote from an article about what the minister Marcel said after the event today. Marcel accompanied the president in the launch of the strategy, about which he maintained that "what this policy proposes is to expand the lithium industry, incorporate new actors with public sector association from other modalities different from the current ones."He also stated that, "looked at from the point of view of the private sector, I see that what the government indicates is that the possibilities are expanded, not narrowed . " Likewise, he affirmed that "we must not have a static vision of those who are today, but a dynamic one of multiple opportunities."Project for OctoberFor her part, the Minister of Mining, Marcela Hernando, explained in the capital of the Antofagasra Region that "the process of creating the lithium company begins with a participatory process that starts next week when the tender for the company that is going to carry out the consultancy and the dialogues begin”.The minister indicated that "we hope that in October the product will be delivered to the president and enter the Chamber of Deputies or the Senate as defined at that time . "
Here the minister says that the policy wants to bring in new partners to associate with public companies. Then at the end the minister says that next week they will release a tender for a consultancy agency to write up the bill that will ultimately create the National Lithium Company. While next week they release this tender, I suspect that no later than at that time we will hear news from the government or codelco about making partnership in maricunga with MSB. IMO
