Canadian mining tycoon Robert Friedland, chairman of Ivanhoe Mines Ltd., said recently that the Chilean government's plan to require a controlling stake in all future lithium projects would deter investment, and will threaten to disrupt the clean energy transition.
Chilean President Gabriel Boric announced late on Thursday local time that he would nationalise the country's lithium industry. He said that Chile will establish a state-owned lithium industry company to participate in all production links of lithium resources, and future lithium mine contracts will only be issued to public-private joint ventures under state control.
Affected by the news, the stock price of Chilean lithium companies plummeted last Friday.
Scare away investors and hinder the energy transition
Canadian mining tycoon Friedland said in an interview with the media that Chile's plan to nationalise the lithium industry will "pose a considerable challenge to international capital and make it more difficult to invest in Chile."
Friedland said Chile's plan would damage the country's reputation as one of the safest places for foreign investors to invest in Latin America.
This, he said, “could set Chile back a long way — companies like Rio Tinto, Teck and BHP will not invest there.” "The way I see it, that's not going to end well." he said.
Friedland also said that governments and state-owned companies are inefficient miners and that encouraging the private sector to invest would be "much more efficient." He added that "ill-considered" nationalist policies could undermine the clean energy transition.
In recent years, the mining tycoon has been involved in the development of some of the world's largest copper mines, including Oyu Tolgoi in Mongolia and Kamoa-Kakula in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
