Albemarle produces only lithium carbonate in Chile, used commonly in consumer electronics.

All are normally converted for pricing into lithium carbonate, largely used for battery manufacture.

Maricunga has an initial resource of 574,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate.

Current global demand is 16,000 tons per year, or 84,000 tons of lithium carbonate.

SQM said in October it was facing delays in upgrading its lithium carbonate plant, which processes lithium from Salar de Atacama.