After President Gabriel Boric’s announcement in Chile regarding the National Lithium Strategy, the Minister of Mining, Marcela Hernando, delved into the scope, business model and environmental impact that this issue could involve.
And he maintained that the central axis of this plan is that “lithium ‘recovers’ for the Chilean State, and the State is going to take control over this wealth that is tremendously valued today.”
In conversation with Tele13 Radio, Hernando commented that the interested companies can already take the first steps, in the sense of carrying out the necessary contracts with the two representatives of the State: Codelco and Enami. This, because from the Government they hope that the joint ventures will be done with them to begin the explorations and exploitations of this product.
“If the State owns the lithium, the State is also going to have the special operation contracts, and therefore we hope that the partners provide the initial capital and the technology,” he said.
Likewise, the head of the Mining portfolio -and after being consulted about the illegal financing of politicians by SQM- mentioned that although “there is a story from which one cannot be abstracted”, this “has more to do with the mining industry”. In this sense, Hernando explained that “today the income from mining that companies capture is very large, over 40% or reaches 70%. And we believe that it is not fair that in the case of non-renewable minerals, the State does not receive greater compensation.”
The authority spoke of the possibility of extending the contracts, particularly that of SQM, which expires in 2030, and pointed out that despite the fact that for a long time it has been debated whether this company should have increased the quota and extended the contract, SQM has not yet reached the authorized withdrawal quota. And he attributed this fact to the lack of investment necessary to increase the efficiency of this process.
