Description
Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile (SQM) is a Chilean chemical company and a supplier of plant nutrients, iodine, lithium and industrial chemicals. It is the world’s biggest lithium producer.
SQM's natural resources and its main production facilities are located in the Atacama Desert between Chile's I and II regions.
History
State company (1968-1983)
Created in 1968 as a Sociedad Minera Mixta between private investors and the State of Chile (Compañía Salitrera Anglo-Lautaro 62.5% and CORFO 37.5%). The new company was made up of the combination of the deposits and assets of the Compañía Salitrera Anglo-Lautaro and the Empresa Salitrera Victoria owned by CORFO.
At the end of 1966 the problem of the expiration of the state enterprise managed by COVENSA 30 July 1968 and how to organize the nitrate industry arose. Negotiations with Anglo-Lautaro to establish a partnership led to the creation of SQM, with the intent to restructure the declining nitrate production, increase investment and improve exploitation. As a result, SQM was given a monopoly in the exploitation and commercialization of nitrate.
In 1971, the State of Chile, through CORFO, acquired 100% of the property and with this, the exploitation of nitrate was nationalized.
Private company (1983-)
Between 1983 and 1988, it was privatized again during the military dictatorship, transferring the Chilean state company to Julio Ponce Lerou, the then son-in-law of Augusto Pinochet, for 20,300 million pesos through the transfer from of 93% of the State shares despite the fact that the value was approximately 35,800 million pesos.
In 1993 the operations of the technical grade potassium nitrate plant began.
In 1995 SQM was listed on the New York Stock Exchange and started the production of potassium chloride from the Salar de Atacama. Production of lithium carbonate from the Salar del Carmen started in 1997. In the years that followed, the business was internationalized through acquisitions and joint ventures:
- acquisition of Kemira Emirates Fertilizer Company (2005),
- takeover of the iodine business of DSM ( 2006),
- Joint Ventures with Coromandel in India (2009),
- Qingdao Star in China (2009),
- Roullier in France (2009) all for the plant nutrition business,
- Lithium-Americas Corp . in Canada (2016) to run the Cauchari-Olaroz lithium project in Jujuy, Argentina. In 2018 sold its share to Jiangxi Ganfeng Lithium Co., Ltd
- Kidman Resources in Australia (2017) to form Covalent Lithium to manage the mount Holland mine project. Kidman Resources was subsequently taken over by Wesfarmers.
In 2015, the largest shareholder with 32% was the Julio Ponce Lerou's Pampa Group .
In 2018, China's Tianqi Lithium Corp. purchased 23.77% stake in SQM from Canadian mining company Nutrien Ltd. In 2019, Tianqi Lithium has come to an agreement over the governance of SQM with key shareholder Julio Ponce Lerou.
In 2015 after flood damage to the railway, nitrate transport to the port by rail was replaced by trucking.
