By Fabian Cambero and Daina Beth Solomon
SANTIAGO (Reuters) – More than 50 companies have expressed interest in developing lithium projects in Chile, Finance Minister Mario Marcel said on Tuesday, after the government called for proposals for a series of salt flats containing the battery metal.
Chile, the world’s largest producer, in April called for proposals to develop lithium projects in more than two dozen salt flats that have yet to be fully explored, while the Atacama and Maricunga brine deposits are set aside for state control.
Fifty-four companies from ten countries submitted declarations of interest to develop 88 projects through the public process, which ended Monday, Marcel said at an event in Santiago.
“There are investors of different sizes… there are local investors and a lot of foreign investors,” Marcel said. “There is clearly very broad interest in investing in this sector.”
The mining ministry will later provide details of the salt flats for which overlapping proposals have been received.
In April, Chile’s Mining Minister said a tender process would take place if more than one company expressed interest in one site.
However, investors have raised concerns about how the government will award lithium contracts in salt flats where mining concessions have previously been granted, risking creating a kind of dual ownership.
Chile is trying to expand its role in the lithium industry, which is the world’s second largest after Australia, through state-led projects and private investment.
U.S. Ambassador to Chile Bernadette Meehan said at an event in Santiago on Tuesday that U.S. companies have shown “intense interest” in both the mining of lithium and the production of components that use the material, such as batteries.
“There are American and Western companies that are interested in all the lithium opportunities that the Chilean government has announced,” she said.
Currently only American company Albemarle (NYSE:) and local miner SQM produce lithium in the country. Last month, SQM signed an agreement with state-owned giant Codelco to establish a majority-state joint venture in the Atacama salt flats. Codelco is also looking for a partner for a major new lithium project in the Maricunga salt flat.
