What are the LCE tonnage_quotas_for_Chile? Maybe_we_just_found_out. Chile has a governmental agency named InvestChile who has the responsibility of encouraging new investment in Chile. This agency is currently undertaking to encourage an international company to step up and begin to manufacture lithium-based end-user products (eg batteries) using the country's resources at "favorable" terms. A call for proposals to meet this objective was issued yesterday Click Here for Mining Journal announcement Of interest, this call by the Chilean government for proposals is getting a significant amount of air time in India Click here for story . The specifics of the call for proposals is outlined in more detail on the InvestChile website Click Here for original copy.
Buried in this article you will see a previously unpublished new figure of 300,000 metric tonnes LCE production target set for the year 2035 in Chile. This increase would "stage out" in linear fashion over the next 19 years as follows: 2016 - 80,000 mt 2017 - 91,579 mt 2018 - 103,158 mt 2019 - 114,737 mt 2020 - 126,316 mt 2021 - 137,895 mt 2022 - 149,474 mt 2023 - 161,053 mt 2024 - 172,632 mt 2025 - 184,211 mt 2026 - 195,789 mt 2027 - 207,368 mt 2028 - 218,947 mt 2029 - 230,526 mt 2030 - 242,105 mt 2031 - 253,684 mt 2032 - 265,263 mt 2033 - 276,842 mt 2034 - 288,421 mt 2035 - 300,000 mt
Albemarle has secured a yearly production quota of 80,000mt of LCE in Chile through 2043.
If NewCo Maricunga began to produce LCE in 2019 then it would figure Chile would be agreeable to endorsing a consolidated production target for other miners like us "above the Albemarle 80,000 mt quota" of 34,700 mt (ie 114,737 - 80,000).
In 2025 that figure for "other miners" could be 104,000 mt (ie 184,211 - 80,000)
It would appear that Chilean long range planners are not looking to throttle down or squander lithium output.
From what I see a NewCo 20,000mt LCE production target in 2019 does seem to fit into the big picture plan for Chile. If we max out at 48,000 mt for 20-30 years beginning in 2021-ish then it would appear everyone will be basically pleased. Over 48,000 mt/year we then start getting ecstatic I would think.
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