LatinNews Daily - 10 November 2020

* Chile’s mining minister Baldo Prokurica has welcomed the approval by a local environmental regulatory body of plans by state-owned copper mining company, Codelco, to carry out exploration activities for lithium at the Salar de Maricunga, in the northern region of Atacama. This would mark the first time that Codelco has undertaken exploration activities for the metal. The proposal was approved by a unanimous ten votes. Exploration activity is slated to begin in April 2021, and is expected to take a minimum of six months, and a maximum of ten months. In a statement, Codelco said that depending on the results, the firm will determine whether “it is environmentally and economically viable to move on to the next stages of the project”. Prokurica described the approval of the plans as an “extraordinarily important step” for the country, which has the largest lithium reserves in the world. He expressed hopes that under the current government led by President Sebastián Piñera, lithium production could increase from the current 100,000 tonnes per annum to 230,000 tonnes in 2025.

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