Enami assesses partners for US$1.5bn Salares Altoandinos lithium project

Chilean state miner Enami is evaluating six candidates for a public-private partnership related to the US$1.5 billion Salares Altoandinos lithium project in Atacama region.

The PPP will be established in March 2025 and the finalists are Chinese companies BYD Chile and CNGR Advanced Material, South Korea's LG Energy Solution and Posco, France's Eramet, and local Rio Tinto unit Rio Tinto Mining and Exploration, Enami said in a statement.

Initially, Enami received 12 expressions of interest from companies and consortiums from eight countries in the process to develop, operate and finance the project.

Salares Altoandinos covers the Aguilar, Isla and Grande salt flats and is planned to produce 60,000t/y of lithium carbonate equivalent.

Basic exploration will resume in September with the aim of improving the resource estimate, Enami said.

Meanwhile, an indigenous consultation process is underway as part of a request for a special lithium operation contract (Ceol) the company submitted to the mining ministry.

The partner will be key to provide financing, given Enami's precarious economic situation. In the first half, it reported a loss of US$54.4 million, compared to a loss of US$109mn a year ago.

The latest figure is the result of an operational stabilization plan and measures such as the temporary shutdown of the Hernán Videla Lira smelter in Paipote, which was decreed in February due to environmental problems and the unsustainable losses the unit produced.

“We hope that next half we will have better results and access to the financial system so that our company can continue to fulfill its role of promoting small and medium-sized mining,” executive VP Iván Mlynarz said.