Lithium Power International Ltd (fka LTHHF)

[Dr_Vonschellan]

Boric_is resurrecting Pinera/Jobet Lithium_Tenders plan_perverted to_suit
the Gang of 7's thieving objectives preliminarily set for issuance in 2024.
The Gang of 7 in hierarchical order is:
1. Anti-Mining Minister Marcela Hernando. Un-elected.
2. Mommy's Boy Gabby Boric. Note: this moron was elected.
3. Eduardo Bitran from Codelco (hired gun whore Executive). Un-elected.
4. Codelco CEO Maximo Pacheco. Un-elected. Max's motto is, oink oink, let me into the pigsty.
5. Minister of Economy Nicolas Grau (note: "best at screwing you" used-car salesman in all of Chile). Un-elected.
6. José Miguel Benavente Executive VP of CORFO. Un-elected.
7. Finance Minister Mario Marcel. Un-elected. Mario's refrain is, "oh woe is me, forgive me sweet Jesus for all my sins with these 6 other thieves".

Mommy's Boy Gabby Boric now wants to re-open bidding on Lithium properties (or LCE export quota licenses) by using the tried & proven method last used by President Sebastian Pinera & Mining Minister Juan Carlos Jobet in 2021. Boric is planning to let the process begin in the first semester of 2024 https://www.latercera.com/pulso/noticia/gobierno-planea-licitar-a-privados-permisos-de-exploracion-de-litio-el-primer-semestre-de-2024/FT6TR53CTBHCNEOKRWZCJCH3TA/

This new June 16 Lithium Tenders Announcement is/was intended to be a broad-reaching announcement... but its newly consolidated "re-packaged" redundant message is once again indeed larcenously aimed at the miners in Maricunga.

So the big question today is... will this new huffing & puffing June 16 announcement scare all the potential junior lithium miners thinking about investing in Chile finally get them to "tow the Gang of 7 line" and conform to the new leftist/commie dictate of paying off the Gang of 7 first in order to get an exploitation permit in Chile? I don't think so.

Dear Gang of 7, go fock yourselves. This June 16 announcement about undefined pie-in-the-sky Lithium Tenders (with no LCE tonnages even quoted) is just another load of crap hot-air high-sounding intentions with no firm commitments or detailed mechanical means to accomplish anything of substance based on flimsy nebulous target dates. We lithium miners will simply wait you thieving leftists/commies out until the Republicans retake the government in 2026.

The Doctor
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A rough Google English auto-translation follows:
The Government plans to tender lithium exploration permits to private parties in the first half of 2024
by Victor Guillou

The National Lithium Strategy (aka NLP) already has a formal 33-page document, which was published this week. The private companies that win the tenders will have the preferential option of future exploitation, in association with a State company. The strategy details that the objective of the State in the Salar de Atacama is to increase production and, in the Salar de Maricunga, it entrusted Codelco to find a solution that enables the development of projects.

Almost two months after the announcement of the National Lithium Strategy (aka NLP), announced by President Gabriel Boric on April 20 on national television, the government published a 33-page document that details the objectives of the policy and schedules its main milestones. The text, posted on the gob.cl page, confirms the government's claim to enter the Salar de Atacama, "the largest lithium reserve at the national level, over 90% of the total," he says, and gives the first light of the participation of the private sector in the future development of this industry.

In defining the strategy, President Boric stated that a protection network would be established "fulfilling the commitment of 30% of ecosystems protected by 2030." The document details that today "only 7.5% are under some form of official protection." The text recalls that a study by Sernageomin (ref National Geology & Mining Service) has identified 63 saline environments, 45 of them salt flats and 18 salt lakes, and that the same body identified 18 salt flats as "of interest for a specific evaluation regarding their geological potential to host lithium projects". .

The document establishes as one of its objectives the involvement of the State in the entire lithium industrial cycle, but it also promotes public-private partnerships. "The public-private partnership mode and the mechanism for selecting private partners can be diverse depending on the characteristics of each salt flat, the activity (exploration versus exploitation) and the presence of incumbents," the document describes.

But for the first time, he sets a specific date for it. The government's intention is to tender Special Lithium Operation Contracts (CEOL) for private exploration "starting in the first half of 2024, in those salt flats registered by Sernageomin and that are considered susceptible to exploitation." And it details the following: “The prompt delivery of exploration CEOL is due to the need to move quickly with the subsidiary of available resources, to then start productive operations. In the event that the exploration results show potential, the private sector will have the preferential option of future exploitation in association with a State company such as Empresa Nacional del Litio (NLC), subsidiaries of Codelco or ENAMI", the document adds, and recalls something that already It had been advanced, in the sense that those salt flats that are defined as strategic "the State will have control of said association."

In another section of the document, it is explained that the bidding process to select the companies that will carry out the exploration in the salt flats "will be public, competitive and transparent", something already stated, but it adds that "technical offers must include, among other things: reports and instruments to keep the State updated on the information collected, a proposal for a local value generation plan and productive chains, as well as the estimate of environmental impacts associated with each project”.

It also specifies that "as of 2023, exploration and exploitation CEOLs will be granted to subsidiaries of state companies (Codelco and ENAMI) in those salt flats where they already have projects in different stages of development", and that said companies "will be able to decide whether to associate or not with a private ”.

The government estimates that the new projects "will take an average of 6-8 years to start production."

Maricunga: Codelco will seek a solution.
The document also mentions the second salt flat in importance today: Maricunga. The text includes it within the group of salt flats where "there are no lithium properties, so any exploration or exploitation project with private participation requires a CEOL." That statement could cause controversy, since other companies such as Minera Salar Blanco, Simbalik and Cominor, have properties (purchased) prior to 1979, which would enable them to exploit lithium. In addition, Codelco has a CEOL over Maricunga, but in 2022 it entered a requirement to extend its ownership over the entire salt flat, something that the government has not yet resolved.

However, the text continues to give Codelco preeminence over the salt flat. "In the Salar de Maricunga, where there are currently several companies interested in the exploitation of lithium, the State has commissioned Codelco to find a solution that enables the development of projects," he points out.

Codelco has claims on another salt flat, Pedernales. The document mentions it, together with the Atacama, as the only two where the existing properties date back to 1979, the year in which lithium was declared a non-concessionable mineral. In this sense, the strategy defines that "a Codelco subsidiary could develop a project on its own or form a public-private association with which to begin the exploration and exploitation of the salt flat."

As for Aguilar, Infieles, La Isla, Las Parinas and Grande, included among the deposits without lithium assets, the document details that "ENAMI has requested a CEOL from the Ministry of Mining to establish the 5 Salares Project."

The rest of the schedule.
The document also specifies other deadlines. For example, it details that the creation of the Lithium and Salt Flats Strategic Committee "will be formalized in May", which has already happened. Regarding the participation of the State in the Salar de Atacama, it defines CORFO and Codelco as responsible, reporting the start of SQM negotiations. In that deposit, the document specifies one of the objectives of the negotiation: "to generate the conditions that allow increasing production in the Salar de Atacama."

The beginning of a process of dialogue and participation with the various actors is also added, to begin “during the year 2023?, where public entities such as the Ministry of Social Development and Family, the Ministry of the Environment and CORFO are added. Regarding the creation of the Technological and Public Research Institute of Lithium and Salt Flats, he points out that its start-up is estimated in the first half of 2024.

Finally, regarding the creation of the National Lithium Company, he recalls that the submission of the bill "will occur at the end of 2023, receiving contributions from the dialogue process." It also mentions the improvement of the Institutional and Regulatory Framework for the proper Development of the Lithium Industry, a milestone that will seek to "modify and adapt the regulatory bodies that regulate the industry and its institutions (among them, CChEN, DGA, Sernageomin, Ministry of Mining, Environmental Institutionalization), to be presented within the first semester of the year 2024?.