The left-leaning government of Chile assures the lithium industry that it will be flexible in opening up new mining sites to encourage investor participation under a public-private investment model. According to Chile’s Economy Minister Nicolas Grau, there are over 400 lithium industry representatives coming from 30 jurisdictions looking to bid on the reserves of world’s biggest source of lithium.
As it is, Chile holds about half of the most “economically extractable” lithium reserve in the entire world. Lithium, after all is the key component to the batteries for use in electric vehicles.
Chile officials under President Gabriel Burica understand that the number of private sectors participating in the public-private business model is strategically significant. That is why the government vows to be flexible in having a controlling interest in the operations, by allowing private firms to retain control over projects in areas deemed as non-strategic. The government acknowledges that these are non-strategic investments because they are flats that are too small for the government to take on a major role in their operations.
Why are Lithium Batteries Important?
Although lithium is also used as components of conventional batteries, the metal is more popular as key element of rechargeable batteries. Lithium rechargeable batteries can power up electronic gadgets, laptops, smartphones and most important of all electric vehicles. The metal makes possible the storing of renewable energy in rechargeable batteries.
Lithium as a metal has low density and it;s small atomic weight as well as its radius it can be used to combine with different materials to act as electrodes that can produce high voltages.