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Still no plan from the Chilein Goverment on how they will acution off the CEOL's
By Juan Francisco Veloso Olguin ([e-mail])
Copyright 2012 – The Santiago Times

Argentina could overtake Chile as the main producer of the mineral, they warn.

Chile’s lithium reserve has been the focus of broad interest from national and international companies alike, yet El Mercurio reported Friday that Chile’s strict lithium extraction laws have prevented companies from actually investing in the industry.



To discuss the current situation and how the industry could be improved, Universidad Católica held a seminar on Thursday titled “The debate over lithium.” Among other things, the seminar touched on Chile’s restrictive lithium mining laws.

Currently, only the Chilean Chemical and Mining Society (SQM) and the Chilean Lithium Society (SCL) have contracts with Chile’s Economic Development Agency (CORFO) for lithium extraction. All other lithium mining is prohibited by Chilean mining law 18.097, passed after SQM and SCL had already signed their deals.

Andrés Yaksic, who has a Master’s degree in mineral economy from Universidad Católica, said of the current laws, “There are not enough incentives for mining companies to develop exploration. As long as there are limitations, the interest in extraction will remain low.”

Yaksic estimated that in the next 90 years, lithium demand will grow from current levels around 120,000 to 140,000 tons to between 90 million to 140 million tons, which he believes makes it essential for the industry to develop.

Eugenio Rivera, director of the economic program of the Chile 21 Foundation, Aserta Consultores, suggested, “There could be special exploitation and operation contracts for the material for specific areas.”

Currently, Chile is the world’s largest producer of lithium, accounting for 37 percent of world production. But experts worry about the growing levels of extraction from other countries, from neighboring Argentina in particular.

Universidad Católica engineering professor Gustavo Lagos says that although the cost of lithium extraction in Chile is 30 percent lower than Argentina, Chile’s neighbor could overtake the state in the production of lithium due to Argentine policies to promote the industry.

As Yaksic concluded at the seminar: “Lithium is abundant resource that is evenly distributed across the world, hence if it’s not produced in Chile, it will be done somewhere else. It’s as simple as that.”