Boric’s tour in France will bring more foreign investment

The Chilean Minister of Economy, Nicolás Grau, was convinced that the president’s visit gabriel boric to Paris will serve to attract “an even more robust foreign investment from France than it is today” seen the “much interest” of some companies and then “proposals” they have done.

Grau, who accompanies Boric in the French capital, explained in an interview with EFE this Thursday -without giving names- that they are “concrete proposals” to the state companies that are going to lead the exploration and exploitation of lithium.

A key mineral for electric batteries of which, he recalled, his country is currently the second largest producer in the world and has between 30% and the 40% of the known reserves in the world.

The minister did not want to talk about projection figures for the lithium that could be extracted or the necessary investments, arguing that this is the subject of confidential negotiation between the companies and that there is still a lack of information on the full potential of the sector.

His department presented the national lithium strategy a couple of months ago, which, among other things, provides that in partnerships between state companies and private partners, the former will retain at least the 51% of participation in the case of salt flats considered “strategic” like the Atacama, the largest in the country.

In those that do not have this qualification -which will be determined based on the characteristics of the salt flats- there will be “more flexibility” in the distribution of participation between state and private groups.

In parallel to this cataloging, the head of Economy said that at the end of the year it will be reported which will be the protected areas and which may be exploited.

Precisely, in a meeting with the French employer Medef this morning, Grau presented the chronology of his strategy, the environmental rules and his vision of “How do we want to have an industrialization process in Chile based on this opportunity we have with lithium”.

Giving confidence to the private sector

It is – he stressed – “give confidence to the private sector to avoid surprises” because “The important thing is not that conditions exist or do not exist, but that these conditions are known, that they are respected as we in Chile have always respected (…) and of course that these conditions are viable in economic and financial terms”.

The minister pointed out that in the Atacama salt flat, which represents the 90% Of the known resources, the state company Codelco already has contracts with the Chilean SQM until 2043, which will be maintained, and with the American Albermarle, to which a negotiation is proposed to be able to extend it beyond 2030.

He advanced that exploration tenders will be opened to the private sector in other salt flats so that these contracts will give them preferential conditions to participate later in the exploitation phase.

An exploitation that will set the percentage of lithium that will have to remain in Chile for national production as an input to generate more added value, as occurs in the agreements with SQM and Albermarle, which establish a 25% of the total.

A technological transition in lithium extraction

The Minister of Economy indicated his willingness to proceed to a “technological transition” in the extraction of lithium, to go from the technique of “evaporation” currently used, to that of the “direct extraction”, that allows to increase the production “with less impact on the environment”.

The visit to Paris, which is the last leg of Boric’s tour in Europe, has also served to present Chile’s ambitions with green hydrogen (generated with renewable energy), and in particular -as Grau said- the objective is for the country to take “2030 the cheapest production in the world”.

A goal in your opinion “realistic” that sits on the “geographical conditions” in the capacities to produce wind and solar energy, and in the experience that it has accumulated in the energy transition.

In this regard, he noted that in his country there is already a demonstration plant that generates synthetic fuels from hydrogen that can be used in vehicles, instead of conventional fuels derived from hydrocarbons such as gas and oil.

Source: EFE