The situation became more complicated this week for the president of the Codelco board of directors, Máximo Pacheco Matte, with 3 judicial fronts for having forged the agreement that would hand over the exploitation of the Salar de Atacama until 2060 to SQM. In court he faces three initiatives that, if successful, could mean a scanner for his weak management and having to respond to criminal cases for tax fraud, administrative prevarication, influence peddling and unfair administration.
One of the complaints was presented by deputy Cristián Tapia, member of the Mining Commission, before the North Central Prosecutor’s Office. The letter is against those responsible for the crimes recently described within the framework of the agreement that Pacheco wishes to sign with SQM.
Pacheco’s proposal is to bring forward the end of the current contract between Corfo and SQM, signed in 2018, which established a lease for the exploitation of the 16 thousand hectares of the Salar de Atacama until 2030, in exchange for a fee for the treasury that around 40% of profits. After that date, SQM is obliged to return the leased mining properties and the installed industrial infrastructure.
Instead of preparing Codelco to take over lithium exploitation, Pacheco has promoted an agreement since last year, whose Memorandum of Understanding (Mou) gives him 49.99% of the ownership and control of the board of directors of the new company. company to SQM.
Since it was announced, analysts from various sectors have come forward criticizing the agreement for lack of transparency and the legitimization of Pinochet’s ex-son-in-law, who after having become owner under the shadows of SQM and financed almost all of the political parties in The post-dictatorship still maintains control in the exploitation of lithium.
El Ciudadano spoke with Deputy Tapia, who commented that “we made this presentation because it seems to us that there could be several crimes, such as administrative prevarication, influence peddling and unfair administration in the way this business took place.”
He added that “public officials must live up to what is needed. Do not do a business hidden from everyone, which was not even reported to the Mining and Energy commission of the Chamber of Deputies. Everything was hidden and we found out about it through the press. Why do they do things hidden? “When things are done well they are not hidden.”
A calculation made by José Cabello, geologist and director of the Center for Strategic and Critical Mineral Studies of Chile (CEMEC), who worked at BHP Billiton as manager of new businesses and mining strategy, determines that when the State, either through of Codelco or Enami, has the Salar de Atacama with its lithium and potassium reserves, it does not require handing over half of the property.
“Codelco is missing a huge opportunity to take over the Salar de Atacama. There is no reason why it should not take over the exploitation (…) From a strategic point of view, when one is the owner of the best reserves in the world, someone is invited to participate in the business, but one does not give up more than 20 percent (… ) In this situation, you have to do a well-done tender and only offer 20 percent. I assure you that there will be no shortage of offers,” he commented with El Ciudadano.
Deputy Tapia agrees with the geologist, considering that “he is absolutely right when he says that more than 20 percent of the wealth, which is lithium, cannot be given to a private company, because control is lost a little, which It has not been had for so many years, considering what Chile needs. There are not enough economic resources here. The natural resources that have to be for the benefit of Chileans. The needs we have today in security, health, and housing are very great. Other countries do not have it, if we have this wealth we have to make the most of it and not in the way this contract is intended to be signed.”
In the opinion of the lawyer and former constituent, Mauricio Daza, this negotiation with Codelco through direct dealings with SQM “is a gift that this government is giving to Pinochet’s grandchildren. How much will SQM pay for this agreement that guarantees lithium extraction until 2060? Well, zero weight.”
The purchase of a mining project that has nothing
On March 14, 2024, Codelco reported on its web portal that it was formally the owner of the shares of the Salar Blanco project developed in the Salar de Maricunga and purchased from the Australian Lithium Power International (LPI), for which it disbursed 244 million dollars . The above opens a judicial front that Máximo Pacheco must face.
However, despite the price paid, there is no presence of any major mining operations in the Maricunga Salar. The only industrial traces that a visit to the salt flat carried out by El Ciudadano in September of last year could confirm were tires from abandoned trucks, metal drums, plastic bags, fiberglass tanks, brass and wooden pallets. There is no industry or pumping wells. Fewer conveyors, drying pools or any physical assets that could account for a ‘mining project’.
Minera Salar Blanco SA (MSB) was a company created in 2016, in order to develop the Blanco Project, it was approved in an expeditious procedure during the second government of Sebastián Piñera and contemplated producing 20 thousand tons per year of lithium carbonate of the highest quality. ley and 58 thousand tons of potassium chloride over the next 24 years.
However, said ‘mining project’ never had permits to exploit lithium, which require a Special Lithium Operation Contract (CEOL) and the Chilean Nuclear Energy Commission (CCHEN) permit. Although the objective was to produce lithium carbonate and potassium chloride, the mining properties they possess, prior to 1979, were based on sodium chloride and rock salt.
In his presentation before the Mining Commission of the Chamber of Deputies on May 8, 2024, Pacheco was questioned about these shortcomings of the Blanco Project, recognizing that he acquired 100% of the shares of LPI for a value of about 236 million dollars, as well as the non-existence of physical assets for the production of lithium in the located aquifer, as well as the right to exploit lithium.
They are 8 million dollars less than the figure reported in the Codelco statement.
The Environmental Qualification Resolution of the White Project is also not clear. The Second Environmental Court is processing a complaint filed by the Coya communities, who accuse the absence of an indigenous consultation process regarding resources that belong to their territories.
The complaint also drew attention to the stock market value of each LPI share, listed a month before the agreement at $0.25 per share, but which Codelco ended up purchasing at a price of $0.57 per share. That is, if the total stock market value of the company was US$ 116 million before the purchase, Codelco paid 236 million dollars, that is, double its value.
Codelco did not need to pay for a ghost company, since it has its own mining properties registered in its name in the Salar de Maricunga, with a CEOL and the CCHEN permit, which allows the exploration and extraction of lithium for a fee of 325,045 tons .
The complications for Pacheco: Judicial fronts that Máximo Pacheco must face due to the agreement with SQM
On recent Wednesday, the 7th Guarantee Court of Santiago accepted a criminal complaint for treasury fraud against Codelco for irregularities in the Maricunga Salt Flats.
According to the document presented by the economist and lawyer, Julián Alcayaga, “in short, Codelco bought, to develop lithium extraction in the Maricunga Salar, 100% of the shares of a company that does not have physical assets linked to said activity, nor any other relevant one; that it has a project which is based on assets that do not give the right to exploit lithium; that it has an Environmental Qualification Resolution that is neither firm nor enforceable, but rather has numerous pending appeals still being processed before the courts; and paying a value that is equivalent to double the stock market value of the company.”
When consulted by El Ciudadano, Alcayaga stated that he wants “the Public Prosecutor’s Office to investigate and verify that this company does not have mining assets in the Maricunga Salar, that is, it is buying something that is worth nothing,” on one of the fronts. judicial proceedings that Máximo Pacheco must face due to the agreement with SQM.
The lawyer and also an economist highlights that “there was fraud here because 236 million were paid for mining assets that are not worth that. Although Salar Blanco developed several mining explorations and converted several of them into wells for extraction, it does not have the right to exploit lithium, something governed by DL 2886 (1979), in addition to the fact that in the same salt flat there were previous mining properties, such as of Codelco.”
The complaint filed by Alcayaga demands that all those responsible for this transaction, that is, Pacheco and the Codelco board of directors that has given the go-ahead to the purchase of some phantom mining operations.
LOSS OF TEN BILLION DOLLARS
A calculation made by the economist Camilo Lagos projects a loss for the State of 10,199 million dollars if the exploitation of the Salar de Atacama is handed over to SQM until 2060.
Miranda was responsible for the design of public Lithium policy at the Chilean Copper Commission (Cochilco) between the years 2009-2011 and 2015-2016. She also had to coordinate the executive secretary of the National Lithium Commission that met in 2014.
The figure was released in a report prepared by the economist for the Progresa Foundation, who calculates that since the agreement establishes an annual production of 300 thousand tons of lithium carbonate (LCE) for 30 years and considering an average long-term price of US$ 20,000 per ton, the new company should achieve profits of 3,338 million dollars annually.
Given that the agreement signed gave SQM 49.99% of the ownership of the new company, Miranda estimates that the annual profits after taxes would reach US$ 1,152 million. Thus, calculated over 30 years, the benefit from the exploitation of Lithium in the Salar de Atacama would be 10,857 million dollars.
The scandalous figure motivated former senator Alejandro Navarro to present a judicial injunction for administrative prevarication and unfair administration. Another judicial front that Máximo Pacheco must face due to the agreement with SQM.
In recent months, Pacheco had to go to the legislative branch several times, where explanations were demanded for his strange business dealings in Codelco. Perhaps with the signing of the agreement he thought he had won the battle. However, he will now have to face a complex judicial scenario.
Mauricio Becerra R.
@kalidoscop
The citizen
