The Chilean government announced a millionaire award to two companies for the extraction of lithium, which prompted a quick reaction from the president-elect, Gabriel boric, who anticipated that going to “review” the decision. The Ministry of Mining confirmed that the Chinese automotive giant ByD and the national company Servicios y Operaciones Mineras del Norte obtained contracts for the extraction of light mineral for 61 and 60 million dollars, respectively, over 20 years. The tender had already generated controversy in Chile for having been just two months after Sebastián Piñera’s term ends and despite requests from Boric and parliamentary opposition from paralyze and analyze the award, which had until Friday, January 14 to be announced.
“Bad News Breaking”
After meeting with regional governors in Santiago, Boric called the announcement by the Ministry of Mining “bad news”, and took it for granted that his teams will review the tender. “This was an exclusive attribution of the government in office and we think it is bad news. It reminds me of those mooring laws that were made at the last minute“said the future head of state.
“It seems to have become customary in Chile that, when there is an alternation of political coalitions in power, the outgoing outgoing government takes advantage of its last weeks after the election to make various modifications that compromise not only the incoming government, but also the State of Chile,” he said. Boric this Thursday at the National Business Meeting (Enade).
Boric insisted that he is going to review the tender in detail with his work team and regretted that the Executive advanced even though his force had asked that “they not innovate in the matter and, therefore, allow have a long-term debate regarding a commodity as strategic as lithium“. The former student leader argued that we must let the institutions work and stated: “We are going to evaluate it with all the tools that we have available from March 11, which is when we are going to start exercising our powers.”
Instead of these tenders, Boric proposed in his government program to create a national lithium company and turn the mineral into a strategic resource for Chile. The objective is to repeat a process similar to that of copper, when the state-owned Codelco was created in the 1970s, which handles around a third of the country’s red metal.
During his presentation to businessmen at Enade, Boric acknowledged that Chile is going through a difficult economic time, since “finances are stressed”. Faced with this situation, he added that “there can be no redistribution of resources if this does not go hand in hand with sustainable economic growth,” so all policies adopted in the economic area should be focused on environmental sustainability.
Parliamentary requests and criticism
The advisers and members of Boric’s team had met privately last week with the Minister of Mining, Juan Carlos Jobet, so that he would not advance in the negotiations and leave this lithium tender deserted, something that ultimately did not happen. The Mining portfolio alleges that the requests of the Boric team were met and therefore, for example, the operating quotas offered were reduced from five to two and part of the resources will be given to local communities and to research.
The government’s decision also had its rebound in the Chamber of Deputies, which on Tuesday had declared admissible the projects that seek to stop the sale of part of the reserves. The initiative was aimed at preventing the current government from selling part of the metal reserve to foreign entities, reported the Bio Bio portal.
But on Wednesday the opposition withdrew from the special session in which the process was going to be analyzed with the presence of Minister Jobet. “It is a lack of respect and a disregard for a State power that the government, an hour before the special session in which we are called to debate this matter and make relevant agreements for the country, has awarded two private companies the exploitation of lithium for 30 years,” explained Deputy Raúl Soto, of the Party for Democracy.
Leaving the room, the legislator said that they will try “by all means” to stop this process. “The Piñera government did not hear any calls from the entire national community, of organized citizens, of academics, of the political world, even of businessmen who are for sustainable development. Today he gives us a slam“, lamented the green deputy Esteban Velasquez.
For her part, the Christian Democrat senator and former presidential candidate, Yasna Provoste, denounced: “They did not listen to the president-elect or his team, they did not listen to the Senate or the House, much less the communities. Simply the lithium business was stronger.”
An industry in decline
Last Saturday, the president Pinera ratified its position on the negotiations around the lithium industry. “We were the first country in the world to produce it and today we are not. We decided to launch a plan to exploit lithium, which is the essential mineral for the world to come,” said the Chilean president at a press conference, adding: “Either we leave it underground or we use it for the benefit of Chileans”.
According to government data, the country has about 40 percent of the world’s reserves, partly located in territories where indigenous populations reside. Despite having the world’s largest lithium reserve, located in the Salar de Atacama, in the driest desert in the world, Chile has been losing market share in recent years and was ousted in 2017 as the world’s leading producer by Australia., which now holds 46 percent of the total.
Countries like China and Argentina have increased their competitiveness and follow Chile with a ten percent and nine percent share, respectively, according to official figures. The government seeks to produce 400,000 tons of marketable metallic lithium to stop this drop in participation.
The opposition filed an appeal to stop the lithium auction in Chile
Seven deputies of the Chilean opposition presented this Thursday an appeal before the Comptroller to paralyze and declare unconstitutional the lithium tender awarded at the end of the government of Sebastián Piñera, to a company with Chinese capital and a local one, for 121 million dollars.
“We are not going to allow the government to give away this strategic product”, raised the socialist deputy Leonard Soto, after presenting the request to the autonomous entity. “Constitutional norms and legal norms have been flagrantly breached in the sight and patience of the whole world,” added Soto.
According to the brief filed with the Comptroller, the process violates the Constitution by not knowing the exact place of exploitation of this light metal, key to the manufacture of batteries for cars and electronic items.
Another of the illegalities raised in the document is that during the bidding process the Chilean Nuclear Energy Commission was not consulted, since lithium is considered in Chile as a strategic exploitation element, as are natural atomic materials.
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