Chile has moved to boost state control over its lithium industry as it seeks to diversify from mining into batteries and other areas, spooking investors in the country's dominant miners of the white metal, SQM and Albemarle Corp .
SQM has a larger footprint in Chile, with 81,000 hectares for lithium extraction compared with Albemarle's 16,000 hectares.Albemarle said it would have "no material impact on our business" and that it would continue talks on investing in further growth and using new technologies in Chile.
"It's not valid to talk about a process of nationalization because the announced strategy doesn't alter the standing of legal valid legal property," the ministry said in a statement to Reuters, adding that the current law gives state ownership over lithium already. Such resource nationalism, long a hallmark of Latin America's oil sector, has a poor record, according to Benjamin Gedan, director of the Latin America program at The Wilson Center, a Washington think tank.
“Today’s lithium boom offers an opportunity to learn from past mistakes,” Gedan said, calling it “a difficult balancing act.”
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