The Chamber approved the creation of a Special Investigative Commission that will study the political responsibilities surrounding the association agreement in the Salar de Atacama until the year 2060.

The Chamber of Deputies of Chile approved the creation of a Special Investigative Commission in charge of collecting information on government actions carried out by Codelco and Corfo in the area of lithium.

In this way, the political responsibilities surrounding the partnership agreement signed between Codelco and SQM for the exploitation of lithium in the Salar de Atacama until 2060 will be studied. Added to this is the purchase of the assets of the Salar Blanco mine in Maricunga by the state copper company.

The document states that the State's strategy in this matter consists of seeking operators to register the resources through public and transparent bidding.

However, in the case of the Salar de Atacama - where the main lithium reserves identified to date are located and which is the only one where there are ongoing extractive operations - a direct deal between Codelco and SQM was preferred.

Little transparency

According to the grounds for requesting the creation of the Special Investigative Commission, to date "we do not know precisely, nor reliably, the specific reasons for which the Codelco board of directors decided not to call for a tender to define which company it would partner with to develop lithium exploitation from January 2031 onwards."

It is added that there is also no knowledge as to whether the Corfo board of directors was aware of and made a statement on this matter through a formal session with minutes.

In fact, in the opinion of the deputies, only partial and changing versions have been known, as expressed by the Chairman of the Board of Codelco, Máximo Pacheco.

Furthermore, the Mining Committee of the Chamber has never been sent copies of any agreement of the board of directors of Codelco or CORFO on this matter. Much less, he adds, information that was available to reject a tender and opt for a closed-door negotiation with SQM. This despite having been formally requested by several deputies.

Transcendental decision

Although SQM, Codelco and the Government have all insisted that this is an agreement that would be favourable to the State, a number of reasonable doubts have arisen which have not been sufficiently clarified and which require clarification.

At this point, it should be noted that determining the future of the Salar de Atacama, the world's largest lithium reserve, is the most important decision that this government will make.

Furthermore, this is probably the most important decision that the State of Chile will have to make in recent decades, due to its enormous social, economic and environmental implications.

"Therefore, in this context, what is required is to act with transparency, placing the general interest of the country above any particular interest," they said.