Codelco raises to CChen that lithium quota authorized in Salar de Pedernales prevents it from finding a partner
Monday, November 05, 2018 Economy and Business Online ValorFuturo
The state-owned National Copper Corporation (Codelco) filed an appeal for replenishment with the Chilean Nuclear Energy Commission (CChen) in order to expand the quota of lithium authorized to extract and produce from the Salar de Pedernales, located in the Atacama Region .
This is clear from a meeting held in early October between representatives of the copper company and the executive director of the CChen, Patricio Aguilera, where Codelco's strategic project development manager, Jaime San Martín, explained to the authority that the quota authorized does not allow the firm to attract partners for the development of a project in said location.
"In the opportunity on the part of Codelco, as far as Pedernales, it is present that the quota granted does not allow to leave in the search of partners and this is the reason why the appeal for replacement was filed", is detailed in the subject of the meeting, according to the platform of the Law of the Lobby.
"The Director of CChen makes it known that the board resolved that decision because the requirements raised in the request and the revised background were particularly insufficient in relation to information on reserves in the salar, therefore, the level of certainty was very low to authorize the total of the required ", is added in the detail.
According to the resolution dated July 26, Codelco was authorized a maximum extraction quota of 40,000 tons of LME until December 31, 2060, an amount that may be exploited and processed, which was rejected by the state, which studies presented determined the estimate of potential geological resources of 340,070 tons of LME.
In the conclusions of the meeting, it is indicated that in the instance "it was also reported that the resource had been analyzed and that this along with its response, will be presented to the Board for resolution".
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