LatinNews Daily - 16 July 2025

*Two indigenous groups in northern Chile have asked a court to suspend a government-led community review process required for a partnership between Chile’s state-owned copper giant Codelco and the private Chilean company Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile SA (SQM), the world’s second largest lithium producer, to develop lithium in the Atacama salt flats, according to legal documents reviewed by newswire Reuters. According to the newswire, the Asociación Atacameña de Regantes y Agricultores de San Pedro de Atacama - a grouping of irrigators and farmers - and the Coyo indigenous community, both based in the town of San Pedro de Atacama some 55km south of the Atacama salt flats, each independently filed legal challenges with a Chilean appeals court in the northern region of Antofagasta, accusing Chile’s economic development agency (Corfo) of not properly carrying out a consultation process to seek their input on the deal. The completion of an indigenous consultation led by Corfo is one of the conditions for the association agreement between Codelco and SQM, which was approved by the national competition authority (FNE) in April, to come into force. The groups have reportedly asked the court to suspend the process until a new methodology for the consultation could be implemented and more information provided, saying Corfo had not provided enough detail about the proposed deal between Codelco and SQM and that the consultation’s timeline between November 2024 and July 2025 was too brief to allow for detailed analysis.

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