https://plusmining.com/foro-voces-mineras-desafios-y-oportunidades-de-la-mineria-del-litio-en-chile/For those that can understand Spanish, listening to the above 2.5 hr. Lithium presentation is a must. It is full of insights about what could happen in Chile but the critical segments relating to Maricunga are: 1) Karcht's presentation (1:33) and 2) his response to a question (2:13).
Aside from an expert moderator, the following four well known participants each gave a 20 minutes presentation. Juan Carlos Guajardo gave an excellent presentation regarding the Lithium market, Cristian Quinzo explained Chile's legal framwork re Lithium industry, Eduardo Bitram spoke how to maximizeChile's Lithium opportunity during the forthcoming Lithium's "Super Ciclo" and Willy Kracht Chile's Sub Secretary for Mining explained the future role of the "Empresa National de Litio" and how he plans to move forward.
I can not summarize the 4 presentations. However, some selected take aways follow:
Chile's current Lithium exports are only $800 million(2%) vs $50 billion for Copper exports. Chile's lithium market share has decreased from 42% (2000) to 24% for last year. Presently, among Lithium projects worldwide at different stages (exploration to construction) Chile only has represents 5% of them. For perspective,Canada has 26%, Australia 18%, US 16% and Argentina 13%. In other words, regarding the Lithium mining at this rate Chile is in the business of going out of business.However, all presenters agreed the Lithium future potential is significant for the country and that the importance for additional exploration and development..
Many of what Karcht said was a repetition of the previous posts.However, he mentioned that even though using evaporation is a no/no going forward, it may still be acceptable for Maricunga because Karcht recognizes that well advanced projects can not wait for the regulatory changes that the new government will eventually implement. Still, he described Maricunga as a complex situation involving questionable past decisions. Also, having 4 players (including Codelco) further complicates the situation which could probably involve his office in order to fast track it forward.This is significant after listening to several presenters, it is clear that early projects in the Atacama are ankle deep in big doo doo regarding new regulations and other aspects such as local indigenous ownership as in the case of Canada.
It was interesting to learn that 98% of Chile's Lithium reserves are found in the Atacama salar while Maricunga only represents 2%.. A presenter (NOT Kracht) showed how all the Atacama projects could represent $3Billion in future revenue for Chile.He showed a similar Excel for Maricunga with a $300 million estimate assuming a price of $14,000/tonne.In a previous post I mentioned that mining in Chile will pay more in the future.....now I am convinced. Kracht during his summary (2:29) emphasized the need to create additional value-added beyond simple mining Lithium (ie Cathode). Also, he mentioned several times the need for the government and the private sector to collaborate.Even though all presenters stated that Chile can not justify a battery factory, recycling could be a possibility.
