FILE PHOTO: An aerial view shows the brine pools and processing areas of the Soquimich (SQM) lithium mine on the Atacama salt flat, the world’s second largest salt flat and the largest lithium deposit currently in production, with over a quarter of the world’s known reserves, in the Atacama desert of northern Chile, January 10, 2013. REUTERS/Ivan Alvarado
August 12, 2020
SANTIAGO (Reuters) – Chile’s environmental regulator has withdrawn from its legal battle to defend an environmental compliance plan by lithium miner SQM that it approved last year, according to a filing seen by Reuters, a decision that could prove a major setback for the miner as it seeks to expand its operations.
Chile’s Environmental Superintendent (SMA) had approved the firm’s $25 million environmental plan in 2019, but that decision was tossed out by a regional court in northern Chile at the behest of local communities.
The SMA had been planning to take the battle to the country’s Supreme Court, but said in the filing that it had ultimately decided not to fight the lower court’s order.
It also said it would launch a comprehensive review of the four major copper and lithium miners currently operating on the Atacama salt flat.
(Reporting by Dave Sherwood, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
