Codelco-SQM Lithium Deal on Track to Close This Year After Antitrust Nod
Brine pools at a SQM lithium mine on the Atacama salt flat in the Atacama Desert, Chile.
Photographer: Cristobal Olivares/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
A landmark lithium deal struck a year ago between SQM and Codelco is on course to be finalized before Chile’s general elections after securing a key antitrust approval.
Chile’s competition agency, known as FNE, gave its preliminary clearance for an agreement that would see SQM relinquish a majority stake in its prized Atacama salt flat mine to state-owned Codelco in exchange for three more decades of operations. The FNE approval is subject to corporate governance measures that Codelco described as “standard.”