Chile’s government will start talks with lithium giant SQM over its Atacama operations “this semester” to convince the company to sign up to the state’s public-private model, the economy minister told Reuters on Monday, and aims to end the dialogue on increasing state control of lithium during the current government, reports Reuters.

In his first interview with international media since the government announced plans for state control of the key metal for electric car batteries, Economy Minister Nicolas Grau said state-owned mining company Codelco would begin talks on state-owned, privately-owned lithium production “as soon as possible.” .

“Codelco’s discussions with companies operating in the Salar de Atacama, especially with SQM, whose contract expires in 2030, is something that will begin immediately this semester,” Grau said, adding that progress is also expected with Albemarle .

SQM and Albemarle are the only two lithium producers in Chile and operate the Atacama mine, which contains 90% of the country’s lithium reserves.

Shares in both companies fell on Friday after President Gabriel Borik announced that the state plans to tighten controls on the country’s lithium industry.

“Regarding the talks related to the Salar de Atacama, I want to make it clear, this is something that will be determined during this government,” Grau said, adding that there were no specific deadlines, but that all participants were aware of the state of emergency. The next national elections are scheduled for 2025.

The strategy includes a new national lithium company that must be approved by Congress, but Grau said the government believes Codelco has the “capacity to take on new challenges” and the “scale and know-how” to work with lithium. (photo: Dashark, Dreamstime.com)