SANTIAGO - Chile's financial regulator said on Wednesday it is aiming to respond as quickly as possible to a complaint from China's Tianqi Lithium over a planned lithium partnership between miner SQM and Chilean state miner Codelco.
Tianqi, which holds about a fifth of shares in SQM, has argued to the regulator that a shareholders' vote is needed to approve the agreement. The deal would give Codelco a majority stake of SQM's lithium operations in Chile's Atacama salt flat.
SQM and Codelco announced the final terms last week but said certain conditions still needed to be met, including a rejection of Tianqi's proposal by Chile's Financial Market Commission (CMF).