Lithium Power International Ltd (fka LTHHF)

[Dr_Vonschellan]

Anti-Mining Hernando_has nothing_new to_add on_NLC March22_morning
https://www.latercera.com/pulso/noticia/ministra-de-mineria-afirma-el-desarrollo-del-litio-sera-con-privados-no-lo-podemos-hacer-solos/YE4HKUFSD5DSNKACJZBMEQBC34/
English translation follows below

As we mentioned here on March 15 https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=171453758
Also see https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=171434062
Anti-Mining Minister Marcela Hernando on March 22 will be stone-walling and delaying any clarification/expansion/description on the NLC (National Lithium Company) for a 25th time today as she "stretches" this entire process out to better suit her run for the presidential office in 2026 as the RP (Radical Party) candidate starting her campaigning in July 2025 as she will be trying to "roll-over" the entire "lithium solution" into her communist administration to suck the absolute maximum tribute/vig out of junior lithium miners thus cutting-off Mommy's Boy Gabby Boric's even remote chance of getting this new NLC agency up & running before 2025 depriving him of any bragging rights that he has al least accomplish one positive thing in Chile during his 4 dreadful years as president.

The Doctor

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Mining Minister affirms that the development of lithium will be with private parties: "We cannot do it alone"
by Patricia San Juan

Minister of Mining and Royalty: "We do not want to repeat what happened with the tax reform"

Marcela Hernando declined this morning to shed more light on the new national lithium policy, even in design. "We have remained faithful to the fact that the announcement is made by the President," he anticipated. He mentioned that in Chile there are about 60 salt flats, but that the Salar de Atacama is 90% of the reserves. "It is the jewel in the crown." , said.

With the New National Lithium Policy being drafted and without an official launch date, the Minister of Mining, Marcela Hernando, anticipated this morning that the government's idea is to exploit the mineral and develop added value, but in conjunction with the private sector.

"We are absolutely aware that the Chilean State does not have the conditions to advance like this alone, we are not even in a position, because we have not developed the skills, to exploit it at level 1," said the minister at a seminar organized by the Commission of Mining of the Senate, alluding to the mineral extraction phase.

“We understand that the urgency of taking advantage of this virtuous cycle of lithium is now and that we cannot do it alone, because the technology, the knowledge is in the industry, in the private industry, and that is what we mean by saying that it would only be possible in this alliance public-private” he added.

The government has previously indicated that the idea is to create a National Lithium Company that associates with private parties, but maintains control. Referring to the Mining Commission, organizer of the event, the minister anticipated the path that the new institutional framework proposed by Gabriel Boric's government program will take. “We are going to have to work in the future with some bills, at least for the National Lithium Company, which, like any public company, has to go through Parliament,” she stated.

Hernando did not want to shed too much light on the national lithium policy that the government has been working on with secrecy for a year. “It has been difficult, but we have remained faithful to the fact that the announcement is made by the President,” she warned at the beginning of her presentation.
Atacama Salt Flats

The minister recalled that currently only two companies produce lithium in the country, SQM and Albemarle, which operate in the Salar de Atacama, which she highlighted as by far the most important in the country.

“The highest grade is found in the Salar de Atacama and it has been the jewel in the crown,” she stated. Although in Chile, according to her presentation, there are 45 salt flats and 18 saline lagoons, studies by Sernageomin have identified lithium potential in 18 deposits. The Salar de Atacama has 90% of the reserves, she said. Production in Salar is currently There are two operations: SQM, with 65% of production, and the US company Albemarle, with 35%.

Both SQM and the US company Albemarle exploit lithium in the Salar through leasing contracts with Corfo and which establish a scale of tax rates to be paid according to the price of the mineral that starts at 6.8% and exceeds 40% for a price of over US$10,000 a ton.

In the context of record prices reached by lithium last year, the contribution of both companies resulted in extraordinary resources for the Chilean State, calculated for now at more than US$ 5,000 million, almost 2% of Chilean GDP and close to 7 % of the revenue of the Treasury.

Hernando highlighted that the extraordinary income of the treasury came from these contracts, but he did not give more details about what the government is thinking of doing with the operations of the Salar de Atacama.

Based on information from the National Customs Service, Hernando said that last year the export price of lithium from Chile averaged US$39,283 per ton of lithium carbonate. The figure is four times the US$9,333 of the previous year.