President-elect Gabriel Boric described the lithium tender as “bad news”, despite the fact that Minister Juan Carlos Jobet assured that they had complied with all the agreements with the incoming administration.
The controversy lasted for months and finally, in advance, the Ministry of Mining reported the long-awaited announcement of the winners of the tender where exploitation rights were on the table for 400 thousand tons of lithium in the north of Chile.
The deadline was Friday, but it was finally revealed that the winners were the Chinese auto giant ByD, and the national company Servicios y Operaciones Mineras del Norte.
And here a first peculiarity appears, there were five quotas at stake and only two were awarded. 80 THOUSAND tons each, for which the companies offered 60 million dollars.
The president-elect, Gabriel Boric , addressed this decision and said that it is NOT good news for Chile. He even spoke of a mooring policy, reiterating that what they were looking for was to postpone the process.
Even so, he said that he did not know the details of the award conditions, and that they were going to review.
“It doesn’t seem like good news to me, it’s bad news for Chile and as I said, we are going to review it together with our teams at the time we take over”said Boric
The biminister of Energy and Mining, Juan Carlos Jobet, responded to the criticism of the president-elect, assuring that they followed the recommendations of the Boric team, since the funds raised will go to local communities and to research and development.
“It welcomes the suggestions that its own advisers made us: Funds will go to local communities and to research and development. And because it incorporates two new players into an industry where for more than 25 years only two companies without competition have operated ”, indicated Jobet.
Annoyance in Congress
This, however, opens up a complex political scenario for Boric. One of the criticisms of the opposition was the timing of this announcement, pointing out that they expect a more leading role from the incoming government, because they have “legitimized” this process.
But in the Congress everything was seen, there was a special session at 3:00 p.m., where the minister arrived late, unleashing the annoyance. “Armed robbery”, lithium is sold “at the price of an egg”, are part of the criticism that was heard.
This was pointed out by the socialist deputy, Jaime Naranjo and the regionalist Esteban Velásquez, from the Economy and Mining commissions.
Among other data, this that has just been awarded represents 1.8% of the total known lithium reserves in Chile, less than half of what was being tendered, for which the State will receive – in the first instance – 121 million dollars.
.
