Chile: left-wing congressmen now present motion to stop lithium tender

Chilean opposition congressmen presented a motion to suspend the tender for 400,000 tons of lithium that could be exploited for a period of 29 years, after the presentation on the eve (Tuesday) of a judicial appeal, against the initiative promoted in recent months of the government of Sebastián Piñera and that has generated controversy.

“Is bidding last minute is shameful and almost a ruse by the government to deprive Chile of one of its most important natural resources such as lithium. We are tremendously concerned”, Said the deputy of the Communist Party, Daniel Núñez, from the National Congress in Valparaíso.

The proposal of the opposition parliamentarians, if approved, would suspend from this Wednesday any tender or contract of the State where “dispose of or authorize the exploitation of lithium ore”.

“This is based on the fact that we are on the verge of the concretion of a new Constitution and the project establishes that, until its promulgation, the State of Chile cannot sign exploitation contracts, much less make a tender. If approved, it would annul the tender that Minister Jobet intends to carry out on the 14th, which is directly seeking to privatize lithium to the detriment of the national interest.“Added Núñez.

Along the same lines, opposition senators led by the Christian Democrat and former presidential candidate Yasna Provoste criticized the government’s initiative and called on him to accept the proposals of the president-elect, Gabriel Boric, who has already expressed his rejection of the measure.

“We are clear that this Government, like the dictatorship, tries to privilege its friends until the last day, and this time through the extension between roosters and midnight of a set of tenders for lithium companies. We call on the government to accept the proposal made by the president-elect to stop the bidding“Provoste said.

Both Boric and members of his political team have raised the need to analyze in greater depth the nature of the tenders, for which they asked to postpone the award process.

“Lithium is the mineral of the future, used in millions of electronic devices. Chile cannot make the historic mistake of privatizing resources again and for this we will create the National Lithium Company, generating jobs in the deposits and a Chilean stamp on the product.”Boric pointed out in early December.

Government position

For his part, the biminister of Mining and Energy, Juan Carlos Jobet, has defended the tender project pointing to the “lost opportunities”In the international mineral market, essential for the manufacture of computers and cell phones, as well as being a key element in driving the transition towards electromobility in China and Europe.

“Chile is missing the lithium opportunity, while Australia, Argentina and other countries advance. In 2016 we were the largest producer in the world with 37%, today we fell to 31% and without new projects by 2030 we will be 17%”Said the Secretary of State.

“This tender invites companies as partners of the State to invest and exploit lithium. The State will capture more than 50% of the resource without investing, US $ 1,000 million a year during production and more than US $ 200 million when awarding it”Jobet added.

Chile concentrates more than half of the world reserves of the so-called “White gold”, All stationed in the depths of the Atacama salt flats, the driest desert in the world.

The environmental impact of current extractive methods, classified as “primitive”By multiple experts and scientists due to the loss of 95% of the water, the original treatment substance, is one of the points that have also been mentioned in the constitutional discussion, where some sectors point to a text with ecological principles and nationalization of the resources.