Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Exciting times for green leaders like President Biden and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson; As the green revolution drives prices up, the newly elected President of Chile walks away Gabriel Boric rocked the Lithium industry, by promising everyone in Chile a bigger slice of the Lithium pie.
Chile Rewrites Its Constitution, Facing Climate Change
Chile has a lot of lithium, which is essential for the world’s transition to green energy. But anger over powerful mining interests, the water crisis and inequality have prompted Chile to rethink how it defines itself.
Via Somini Sengupta
Marcos Zegers’s photo
December 28, 2021 Updated at 4:23 p.m. ET
SALAR DE ATACAMA, Chile – Rarely does any country get the chance to state its ideals as a nation and write its own new constitution. Almost never the climate and ecological crisis take center stage.
That is, so far, in Chile, where a national renewal is underway. After months of protesting over social and environmental grievances, 155 Chileans were elected to write a new constitution as they declared a “climate and ecological emergency”.
…
And so the Constitutional Convention determines what kind of country Chile wants to be. Members of the Convention will decide many things, including: How should fishing be regulated, and what voice should local communities have over fishing? Should Chile maintain a presidential system? Should nature have rights? What about future generations?
…
Chile prospered by harnessing the riches of nature: copper and coal, salmon and avocado. But even as the country becomes one of Latin America’s wealthiest nations, frustration grows over inequality. Areas rich in minerals are known as “sacrifice zones” of environmental degradation. Rivers began to dry up.
Anger flared up into massive protests that began in 2019. A nationwide referendum followed, electing a diverse assembly to rewrite the constitution.
On December 19 came another turning point. Voters elected Gabriel Boric, a 35-year-old former student activist, as president. He campaigned to expand the social safety net, increase taxes and mining royalties, and found a national lithium company.
The morning after the win, the share price of the country’s largest lithium producer, Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile, or SQM, fell 15%.
…
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/28/climate/chile-constitution-climate-change.html
Although Chile is not the only global source of Lithium, Chile is a major producer, producing 22% of the global supply. Any disruption to Chile’s Lithium production could strain an already tight market, potentially disrupting plans for a global rollout of electric vehicles.
My guess is that international operators are wondering if Gabriel Boric is another Hugo Chavez, or if Chile will suffer the same anti-capitalist frenzy that has brought oil production in Venezuela to a standstill.
Mining lithium is as simple as mining, taking salt-rich brine and drying it in the sun. However, the far-left socialists in Venezuela cannot even get proper food production, so the risk of a political collapse for Chile’s Lithium production still hangs over the entire industry. this industry.
Lithium cannot be substituted for mobile devices or electric vehicles. While scientists are discovering battery technology based on chemically similar but much more common elements such as sodium (like sodium chloride – table salt), Lithium has one distinct advantage over its alternatives – it’s extremely light. Lithium is the first metal on the periodic table, having a density about half that of water.
Battery weight is a big problem for electric vehicles. Switching from a Lithium battery to a much heavier Sodium battery can significantly increase battery weight. Despite saying that, atom to atom, Sodium actually packs a bit more than Lithium. It remains to be seen whether this extra punch will be enough to make up for the extra weight.
Exciting times for Lithium miners and for green leaders like President Biden and Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who have staked a lot of political capital on a rapid transition to electric vehicles. good price.
Related
