President Gabriel Boric: “We want Chile to be the biggest lithium producer in the world”
The President presented the Government’s National Lithium Strategy in Antofagasta, where he stressed that the State will seek to add value by committing to scientific and technological development.
President Gabriel Boric has announced details of the Government’s National Lithium Strategy, which was broadcast yesterday on national television. He made the announcement from the Huanchaca Ruins Cultural Park in Antofagasta.
The President stressed that the strategy is based on a process of dialogue and participation, which will bring together different visions and knowledge regarding the new governance of lithium and salt flats. In this sense, he stated, “lithium presents us with a great opportunity for development that we cannot miss. We have to do it differently than we have done before.”
President Boric highlighted that “the lithium industry has to be at the service of the people, and not the people at the service of the industry (…) For this reason, it is essential – and this is how we have defined it – that the State be present throughout the lithium production cycle. That is why, following the participatory process, we are going to send a bill to Parliament to create a National Lithium Company and a Chilean Economic Development Agency (CORFO) Committee on Lithium and Salt Flats, also ensuring their sustainability in the medium and long term.”
“We want to do this – and I really want to insist on this – with the participation of local communities and indigenous peoples, with high standards of environmental protection. Environmental protection standards – for example, what the Environmental Assessment Service (SEA) does today – are not an obstacle to development, as the director of the SEA constantly reminds us; they are a condition for development,” he stated.
Scientific development
One of the points that the President highlighted is the desire to make progress on a public-private partnership to promote scientific and technological development, such as the research carried out by the Universidad de Antofagasta at their Advanced Research Center for Lithium and Industrial Minerals. This will add value to production and avoid only the raw material being exported.
“Our commitment is to scientific and technological development, because we want Chile to be the biggest lithium producer in the world; but to get there by producing and adding value to lithium, generating productive chains and technology transfers, training our people, understanding that our wealth is not only in the land, but also in the knowledge that we generate and in the value that we add to the products we extract,” he explained.