The President of Chile, Gabriel Boric, presented this Thursday night the “National Lithium Strategy” that will have the Chilean State as an actor in the whole productive cycle of this mineral, for which a National Lithium Company will be created.
Boric explained on national television that the strategy will have five points, the first being creating a National Lithium Company.
“We will make the effort of exploration, exploitation, and value addition based on the principle of virtuous public-private collaboration,” he indicated as the second point of the plan.
“In turn, we will promote research in the salt flats to know how to take better care of them; for this, we will establish a network of protection of salt flats, fulfilling the commitment of 30 percent of ecosystems protected by 2030,” he remarked in the third point of the strategy.
He also pointed out that the plan contemplates that all this development will be done with the participation and involvement of the communities surrounding the mining sites and, in addition, will promote not only the extraction but also the generation of lithium products with added value, he detailed among the final points.
“Thus, the scientific and technological innovation associated with this task will allow us to advance towards a lasting, more complex, and diverse development,” he added.
“Chile has the largest reserves of lithium in the world, a mineral that, being in energy storage batteries, electric cars, and buses, is key in the fight against the climate crisis and an opportunity for economic growth that is unlikely to be repeated in the short term,” he said.
Boric recalled that lithium is currently only extracted in Chile in the Salar de Atacama, in the desert of the same name in the north.
Yet, even so, Chilean production represents more than 30 percent of the global market.
“The potential we have is enormous. In addition to the Salar de Atacama, there are more than 60 salt flats and salt lakes.”
‘Therefore, this policy will also be a crusade to explore them, evaluate their extractive potential, and, very importantly, delimit the protected areas and lagoons where no operations will be installed,” he explained.
The project for creating the National Lithium Company will be sent to the Congress of the South American country, where it will have to be discussed and approved to enter into force.