The new Latin American Chamber of Lithium is currently made up of representatives from Argentina, Chile and Peru and will fight for the creation of a “transparent” market that allows the formation of the price of lithium at the regional level.
This chamber was created to develop the process of setting prices and promotes the development of a lithium market”, said the president of the recently established Latin American Chamber of Lithium, the Argentine Pablo Rutigliano.
The new entity is made up of technical professionals and SME entrepreneurs from the sector in Argentina and Peru, in addition to the Chilean Mining Chamber, and seeks to add partners from Bolivia, Mexico and Brazil.
Its objective is to be able to transparently define lithium prices through the creation of a market, an index of the value of lithium and models of present and future contracts in Latin America.
Lithium production in the region has its heart in the so-called “lithium triangle” made up of the Andean salt flats of Argentina, Chile and Bolivia, countries that, according to the latest data from the United States Geological Survey, concentrate 55.9 % of known world resources of this metal. If the resources identified in Mexico, Peru and Brazil are added, Latin America, with a total of 52.8 million tons, accounts for 59.3% of global resources, while the reserves in the region are much smaller, although they still represent 52.2%. of world reserves.
Rutigliano pointed out that lithium mining in the region is dominated by multinationals that leave “little space” for SMEs and “embryonic” projects.