Chile court freezes multi-million dollar lithium deal
A Chilean court on Friday suspended a million-dollar state lithium tender deal. The tender was issued two days earlier. The tender process had generated controversy in recent months. The tender process, which opened last October, will close this month. The tender deal caused controversy just two months before centre-right president Sebastian Pinera was replaced by leftist Gabriel Boric. The court in Copiapo in the north of Chile said, “It is agreed not to innovate the tender.” The court agreed to award the process for the lithium. The minerals ministry said on Wednesday that China 's BYD Chile SpA and Chile's Servicios y Operaciones Mineras del Norte S.A. were awarded the right to extract 80,000 tons of lithium each over 20 years. Leftist president-elect Gabriel Boric’s team Leftist president-elect Gabriel Boric's team had asked the government to postpone the tenders. The team reportedly said to set up a "roundtable" to discuss various conditions to appl...