Wealth Minerals wins approval for lithium application in Chile

Canadian junior miner Wealth Minerals Ltd. won approval for its application to operate a lithium project in Chile just as prices of the key battery metal begin to recover.

The mining ministry will present the company with a contract for an early-stage project in the Ollagüe salt flat, said people with knowledge of the matter. Pending final adjustments, the contract will be signed and sent to the comptroller for authorization, said the people who asked not to be identified because the matter is not yet public.

Approval follows a government decision in September to simplify the procedure to issue a contract in the salt flat near the Bolivian border where Wealth has the Kuska project in partnership with an indigenous community.

The Vancouver-based company joins others such as London-listed CleanTech Lithium Plc and Chile’s Errazuriz group vying to open new areas in the country which has the world’s biggest reserves. The outgoing government wants to more than double output over the next decade and is counting on investors taking a long-term view on electric vehicle demand as prices recover from a global glut.

(By James Attwood)