SQM says relations with indigenous communities are improving

Chilean company SQM, the world's second largest lithium producer, has a priority commitment to the indigenous communities surrounding the Atacama salt flat, the firm's General Manager Ricardo Ramos said in an interview.

According to the interview, published on Sunday in the newspaper La Tercera, the company is making progress in improving relations with the communities that live in that area of ​​the arid Chilean north through several cooperation deals.

SQM cut a deal with Chile in 2018 allowing it to ramp up output from the Atacama, a remote and fragile desert salt flat whose indigenous inhabitants fear may be jeopardised by mining.