Chilean lithium producer SQM has more than tripled lithium production despite environmental concerns.

Published: Aug 19, 2020 10:52

SMM8, March 19: in 2019, the Atacama Aboriginal Council (CPA) filed a lawsuit asking regulators to repeal SQM's $25 million remedial plan after officials accused the miner of excessively pumping lithium-rich salt water from the salt plant.

Earlier, it was reported that indigenous groups in Chile's Atacama region said they had just won a major legal victory in pushing for the cancellation of the environmental permit of lithium miner SQM and the closure of the miner's operations.

Recently, the company said that despite growing concerns about the environmental impact on one of the world's driest deserts, lithium production could be more than tripled by improving extraction efficiency under the vast salt flats of the Atacama Desert. The company has been opposed by indigenous communities on the issue of water use.

Alejandro Bucher, vice president of environment, technology and community at SQM, said SQM would extract more lithium from the same amount of pumped salt water through the use of salt water designed to make potash and wells of lower grade. In this way, Chile can increase its total production of lithium from the current more than 100000 tons to 300000 tons of lithium carbonate equivalent, he said.

"2020 (second) China Automotive New Materials Application Summit Forum"

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During the reform period of the "four modernizations of the automobile", intelligent network connection, new energy, lightweight and intelligent manufacturing entered the field of the automobile industry, and the automobile era was reinterpreted. The surging changes require the industry to continue to integrate and innovate, and quickly promote the development rate of automobile enterprises. With the emergence of self-driving and intelligent cars, Internet companies, which are not active in the automotive field, have more opportunities to show their talents; the double points policy is becoming an important driving force for the development of China's new energy vehicle industry; in the face of environmental constraints, car companies speed up the application of advanced lightweight components and technologies to achieve vehicle weight loss. With the continuous promotion of the strategies of "Industrial 4.0" and "made in China 2025", intelligent manufacturing has become a new challenge of upgrading and transformation.

Under the guidance of the Shanghai Economic and Informatization Commission and the Shanghai Federation of Industrial economy, in order to accelerate the application of automobile lightweight and product lines, the Shanghai Nonferrous Metals Industry Association, together with Shanghai Automotive Engineering Society, Suzhou Die casting Technology Association and SMM, jointly held the "2020 (second) China Automotive New Materials Application Summit Forum". Jointly discuss material solutions, co-casting automobile industry chain green development closed loop, and strive to build an excellent communication and cooperation platform for the whole automobile industry chain, and lead the creation of advanced automobile industry clusters.

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Chilean lithium producer SQM has more than tripled lithium production despite environmental concerns. - Shanghai Metals Market (SMM)