Chile, US eye collaboration on rare earths and other critical minerals

By Fabian Cambero

SANTIAGO, March 12 (Reuters) - ‌Chile and the ​U.S. ​have signed a joint statement to begin discussions on rare earths and other types of critical minerals, Chile's foreign ministry said on Thursday.

The first ‌meeting will take place within the next two weeks, it added. Areas ⁠of potential coordination include public and private financing for mining projects, the management of scrap for minerals ‌recycling, and exploration for new ‌projects that could help boost minerals supplies in both countries.

The Trump administration has been pushing to reduce reliance on China for a range of critical minerals, which ​are used in electric vehicles, semiconductors, defense systems and consumer electronics.

Chile is the world's largest copper producer and second-largest lithium producer, although it relies on imports ⁠of other minerals.

"I believe there is much we can do with the United States and Chile to strengthen the ​supply chains of these minerals," U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau told journalists in Chile, where right-wing Jose Antonio Kast was ​sworn in as president on Wednesday.

"We will discuss how ‌we can work together," Landau added.

Landau, who previously served as U.S. ambassador to Mexico, signed the agreement with Chilean Minister of Foreign ⁠Affairs Francisco Perez Mackenna in a Santiago ceremony overseen by Kast.

Charlotte, North Carolina-based Albemarle has produced lithium in the country's northern Atacama region for more than 50 years, operations that have ⁠made it the world's largest producer of that battery metal.

Albemarle was not immediately available to comment ​on the partnership between the two countries.

EnergyX, a Puerto Rico-based lithium technology startup backed by General Motors, aims to build a $1.1 billion lithium facility in Chile that is slated to come online in ‌2028 and eventually produce 50,000 metric tons per year.

"This is a good first step on Kast's first day in office to ‌sign something of a framework agreement with the U.S.," said Teague Egan, the EnergyX CEO, ⁠who met Kast at U.S. President ‌Donald Trump's "Shield of the Americas" ​summit last Saturday in Miami.

(Reporting by Fabian Cambero; Additional reporting by Ernest Scheyder in Houston; Editing by Sarah Morland, Daina Beth Solomon and ‌Alistair Bell)

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