Running Commentary on the SP Movements., page-6082

Potash Corp holds 32% in SQM most of which it had acquired in Dec 2004 for USD100mil from ICL. It has to divest this 32% as part of a merger announced last month. And it is this 32% stake that's on someone's radar.

As far as 'largest' goes, SQM catered to 27% of global Li sales last year. Albemarle 17% and FMC 10%.

Rest came from Orocobre's Operations & from China. So that makes SQM the largest vendor of Lithium.

As far as production & Reserves are concerned, SQM produces LCE from its Salar de Atacama Brine Ops in Chile. The solution is processed at their facility in Antofagasta, Chile.

In 2016 they sold Lithium product for USD$10354/ton at a margin of USD6821/t after costs of 3533/t. This price for Lithium was almost double then their 2015 sales.

2016 summary: sales revenue: USD 514.62mil, costs: USD 175.6mil, Profit: USD 339.01 mil, 49.7K metric tons.

2015 summary: USD 223.02mil, costs: USD 109.4mil, Profit, USD 113.632mil, Li sold: 38.7K tons.

Their remaining Lithium reserves are 8.06 million metric tons which includes 4.89 as Proven & 3.17 mil tons Probable reserves. Recovery factor for Li extraction from Brine varies from 28 to 40%.

Their Salar de Atacame lease expires on 31st Dec 2030. SQM's acreage covers 81920 hectares & the Brine is pumped from around wells that are 110 m to 300 metres depth.

In Sept this year SQM signed a 50% JV with KDR for the Mt Holland Lithium mine. This mine has a gross resource of 128 MT @ 1.44% with 4.54 MT LCE. Drilling is ongoing for a maiden Jorc Reserves update.

So that's the bit about SQM & why they r deemed the largest. Same sort of writeup can b done on Albemarle, but u should b able to read their SEC filings. For more on SQM pls refer their 20F filings, all there for the weekend's leisure reading.

Hope this helps.