Rio Tinto invests in major Chilean lithium project

Chile's state-owned copper giant Codelco announced a partnership on Monday with British-Australian miner Rio Tinto to extract lithium from a salt flat that contains the world's second-biggest deposits of the prized metal.

Mining companies are scrambling to get their hands on lithium, a key ingredient in electric car and smartphone batteries.

Argentina, Bolivia and Chile together form the so-called Lithium Triangle, home to 60 percent of the world's deposits of the metal, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS).

The Maricunga salt flat in northern Chile is second only to the Atacama salt flat on Chile's border with Bolivia in terms of its concentration of lithium in brine.

Codelco, the world's biggest copper producer, said that Rio Tinto would invest US$900 million to acquire a 49.99 percent stake in the joint venture, called Salar Maricunga SpA.

Codelco itself would retain a controlling stake of 50.01 percent, it added.

Chile is the world's second-biggest producer after Australia of the metal dubbed "white gold."

Currently, all Chile's lithium comes from the Atacama salt flat.

In 2023, Chilean President Gabriel Boric launched a plan to boost output by developing public-private partnerships to harness other deposits.

Codelco chairman Maximo Pacheco said the new venture, which is expected to be finalized by the end of March 2026, was part of the company's diversification strategy.

With a presence in 35 countries, British-Australian multinational Rio Tinto is the world's second-biggest mining conglomerate after Australia's BHP.

It already has stakes in lithium projects in Argentina and Serbia.

– TIMES/AFP