Enami signs agreement for the development of added value of lithium

By Enami

(This is a machine translation of the original release, which was in Spanish.)

With the purpose of identifying opportunities for extraction and exploitation of lithium brine with the possibility of producing, in the medium term, lithium hydroxide and lithium carbonate of 99.5% battery grade, the National Mining Company - ENAMI has finalized an agreement for the application of technology from the American company Sorcia Minerals LLC, a firm that has focused its business towards the lithium industrialization and the development of value-added products derived from this mineral and produced in state-of-the-art processing plants with minimal impact in the environment.

In this way, through its subsidiary Ensorcia Chile SpA, both companies defined joint collaboration ways to promote, from a technological point of view, the non-metallic mining industry and especially lithium, favoring the development of other derivative products of the same.

With this agreement, ENAMI seeks to strengthen its natural conditions to participate in the lithium business, as a relevant player in national mining. Objective that the state has proposed in its strategic axes, by fixing among its main management guidelines, the creation and viable capture of new mineral wealth diversifying its productive portfolio, identifying business opportunities in the country and processing of metallic minerals and not metallic

"This agreement is for us a tremendous opportunity for our plants and our own experts to be linked to the development prospects that technological advances are opening up for lithium, in order to improve the competitive position of our country in the non-metallic mining industry. ", affirms the executive vice-president of ENAMI, André Sougarret, when emphasizing that this contract confirms the technical, economic and commercial knowledge of the company to carry out projects of this magnitude.

In this regard, Daniel Layton, president of Sorcia Minerals, highlights the opportunity that this alliance opens to generate a value chain that goes beyond the extraction of the resource. "We are very happy to have reached an integral agreement for the development of the lithium industry in Chile with the National Mining Company, the latter being the engine of the smaller scale mining industry in Chile during the last fifty years."