On Wednesday local time, Abel (Albemarle Corp), the world's largest lithium producer, said it had reached a labor contract agreement with unions at the Salar plant in Atacama Salt Lake, Chile, ending a month-long strike.
In August, the Salt Lake's "Albemarle Salar" union went on strike after failing to reach an agreement with Yabao. The union has 135 workers, equivalent to half the employees of the Salar plant.
Arbor said in a statement that it had signed a new 36-month contract with the union and that workers would return to work immediately.
"the operation of the Salar plant returned to normal today, with special emphasis on workers' safety and production work returning to pre-strike levels," the company said.
During the month-long strike, Abel has claimed that the ongoing strike has not affected its lithium production in Chile. In a statement on Wednesday, the company clarified once again that while the strike did result in a reduction in the amount of lithium-rich salt water pumped by the Salar plant, it did not affect the overall production of the nearby La Negra chemical plant, which is responsible for extracting and processing salt water into battery-grade lithium carbonate.
Atacama Salt Beach, where Yabao's Salar lithium plant is located, is a lithium salt lake with the highest lithium concentration, the largest reserves and the most mature exploitation conditions in the world. SQM, the world's second-largest lithium company and its main competitor, is also operating nearby.
SQM's lithium mine production has also run into trouble there recently. Last week, the Atacama Aboriginal Council (CPA) asked local regulators to suspend environmental permits for SQM.
Apel, which has four unions in Chile, reached labor agreements with the three remaining unions at the Chilean factory earlier this year, and the company said the agreement with the Salar workers' union put an end to this year's negotiations.
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