In order to promote the economy and safeguard the environment, Chilean President Gabriel Boric declared on Thursday that he would nationalise the massive lithium sector of the nation.

The shocking declaration is the most recent example of a pattern in which nations aim to impose more control over important resources in the face of escalating competition for the minerals required for the energy transition.

Recent international efforts by nations to exert more control over their natural resources:

CHILE

Chile, which has the greatest lithium reserves in the world, announced that it will eventually hand over management of its sizable lithium operations from industry titans SQM and Albemarle to a different state-owned business.

The second-largest producer of lithium, an essential component of batteries used in electric vehicle batteries, is Chile.

In July of last year, Chile’s finance minister submitted a tax reform measure that would have increased taxes on wealthy earners and increased royalties on enterprises that produce more than 50,000 tonnes of copper annually. This would have increased the state’s share of mining income.

Despite receiving harsh criticism from the mining industry, a Chilean congressional committee adopted the mining royalty bill in January, moving it one step closer to ultimate approval.

MYANMAR

Tin, a component of electronics and semiconductors, saw a spike in price when the Wa ethnic minority group in Myanmar said in April that it would stop operating all mines in the territory it controls as of August.

According to Chinese customs data, 77% of China’s tin ore imports last year came from Myanmar. The International Tin Association predicts that in 2022, the Wa-controlled territory will have produced more than 70% of all the tin produced in Myanmar.

INDONESIA

Powerhouse in terms of resources, Indonesia is tightening regulations on certain materials in an effort to expand domestic downstream businesses and extract more value.

Previously one of the largest nickel exporters in the world, Indonesia stopped the export of nickel ore in June 2020 as it worked to establish a complete nickel supply chain, spanning from mining to the creation of metals and chemicals used in batteries to the construction of electric vehicles.

The world’s top exporter of tin had already taken action to suspend shipments of a number of other metals in order to expand domestic processing when President Joko Widodo said in October that Indonesia was considering a possible ban on tin exports and calculations about its potential impact had already started.

In order to promote domestic processing of a substance utilised as the primary mineral source of aluminium, Widodo stated in December that an export ban for bauxite will go into effect as planned in June 2023.

Speaking at an economic forum, he said that additional export bans will be issued in the upcoming years in order to grow the domestic resource processing business.

MEXICO

After nationalising lithium deposits in April 2022, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador signed a decree in February transferring management of lithium reserves to the energy ministry.

ZIMBABWE

Zimbabwe banned the export of unprocessed lithium in December 2022 in an effort to discourage artisanal miners who, according to the government, are excavating and transporting the material across borders.

(Adapted from Reuters.com)

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