{"id":1160017,"date":"2020-01-15T05:58:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-15T11:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=1011313"},"modified":"2020-01-15T05:58:00","modified_gmt":"2020-01-15T11:58:00","slug":"sqm-may-resume-lithium-production-expansion-thanks-to-chiles-regulator-backing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1160017","title":{"rendered":"SQM may resume lithium production expansion thanks to Chile\u2019s regulator backing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Chile\u2019s environmental watchdog&nbsp;(SMA)<br \/>\nhas appealed a lower court decision against a $25 million remediation plan by SQM,<br \/>\nthe world\u00b4s No. 2 lithium producer, which called into question the miner\u2019s $380<br \/>\nmillion production expansion project.<\/p>\n<div class='d-flex justify-content-center d-xs-block d-sm-block d-md-none'>\n<div id='div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0'><script>googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0');});<\/script><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The First Environmental Court of<br \/>\nAntofagasta, where SQM\u2019s operations are based, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/web\/chilean-lithium-miner-sqm-dealt-blow-by-environmental-court-ruling\/\">upheld<br \/>\nin December<\/a> a complaint made by local communities about the use of water&nbsp;in<br \/>\nthe Atacama Desert.<\/p>\n<p>The ruling was based, according to<br \/>\nfilings, on the ecosystem\u2019s \u201cspecial condition of fragility\u201d in Atacama, where<br \/>\nmore than a third of global lithium carbonate supply is sourced. The court also<br \/>\ncited the high level of scientific uncertainty surrounding the impact of<br \/>\nlithium mining on water in the region.<\/p>\n<p>The environmental regulator, which<br \/>\nhad <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/web\/sqm-receives-environmental-approval-chile-lithium-plant-expansion\/\">approved<br \/>\nSQM\u2019s plans in March last year<\/a>, called the lower court&#8217;s arguments &#8220;unfounded\u201d,<br \/>\nespecially those alleging the rejected plan failed to protect the environment.<\/p>\n<p>The SMA&#8217;s appeal must now be<br \/>\nconsidered by Chile&#8217;s Supreme Court.<\/p>\n<p>SQM\u2019s current annual production<br \/>\ncapacity is 70,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate and 13,500 tonnes of lithium<br \/>\nhydroxide. The company, however, wants to increase production to 120,000 tonnes<br \/>\nof lithium carbonate and almost 30,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide by the<br \/>\nsecond half of 2021 and to 160,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate by the end of<br \/>\n2023.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/lithium-supply-by-producer.jpg\" alt=\"Nemaska Lithium goes bankrupt, victim of market oversupply\" class=\"wp-image-961778\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/lithium-supply-by-producer.jpg 804w, https:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/lithium-supply-by-producer-300x191.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/lithium-supply-by-producer-768x490.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 804px) 100vw, 804px\" \/><figcaption>Wave of lithium supply coming online. (<em>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bmocm.com\/\"  rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> BMO Capital Markets.<\/a><\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Water has become a flashpoint for<br \/>\nthe expansion plans of both SQM and top competitor Albemarle (NYSE: ALB), both<br \/>\nof which operate in the salt flats of the Atacama, the world\u2019s driest desert.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/lithium-supply-demand-forecast-fastmarkets.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1007324\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/lithium-supply-demand-forecast-fastmarkets.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/lithium-supply-demand-forecast-fastmarkets-300x188.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/lithium-supply-demand-forecast-fastmarkets-768x481.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/figure>\n<p>The Chilean miner\u2019s planned<br \/>\nexpansion would come as lithium prices are experiencing a welcomed rebound. The<br \/>\nsurge was prompted by expectations of a jump in electric vehicle sales in China<br \/>\nafter the government gave assurances that its subsidies for buyers would not be<br \/>\ncut any further.<\/p>\n<p>Chile, which holds about 52% of the<br \/>\nworld\u2019s known lithium reserves, lost in 2018 its&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/mining.com\/australia-takes-chile-worlds-no-1-lithium-producer\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">top lithium producer crown to Australia<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The country, however, is working on<br \/>\nreversing that situation. It predicts that lithium will soon become its second<br \/>\nlargest mining asset, behind copper. The commodity is currently&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/mining.com\/lithium-becomes-chiles-no-4-mining-export\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the country\u2019s fourth biggest<\/a>&nbsp;export.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chile&rsquo;s Environmental Superintendent (SMA) said ruling invalidating the miner&#8217;s plan was &#8220;unfounded&#8221;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1016,369,2640],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1160017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-battery-metals","category-miningcom","category-top-companies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1160017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1160017"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1160017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1160101,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1160017\/revisions\/1160101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1160017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1160017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1160017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}