The Chilean Minister of Finance, Mario Marcel, announced this Tuesday that the Government of Gabriel Boric received 88 proposals from 54 companies from a dozen countries to exploit the 26 salt flats available in Chile. The left-wing Administration closed the deadline on Monday night for the private sector to show its investment interest. “For those who thought we were behind, we are quickly catching up,” said the Secretary of State at the seventeenth Conference of Latin American Cities in Santiago, Chile organized by the Council of the Americas (Americas Society/Council of the Americas). On July 9, the results will be known to develop this year “a competitive process” for bidding for lithium exploitation contracts in the South American country. “We are not going to implement our production in 10 to 15 more years, we are going to implement it on next year. And we are going to obtain a combination of public-private adventures with also entirely private projects in a multiplicity of salt flats, while maintaining 30% of the salt flats area protected,” reported Marcel. The head of the Chilean fiscal portfolio took advantage of the key event to establish connections with the business world in Latin America to send a message of tranquility to the region: the period of significant inflation, external imbalances and great exchange rate volatility is a matter of past. “This part of the work has already been fundamentally done, even though we added other additional elements of destabilization, both on the economic side and on the political side. But all that has already happened,» said Marcel. The president of the Chilean state company Codelco, Máximo Pacheco, who also participated in the forum after arriving this morning from Europe, where he was part of the delegation that accompanied President Gabriel Boric on his tour, said : “We all know that what we have to do is an energy transition and that is called decarbonizing, facing climate change, and at the end of the day electrifying the world.” To do that, he argued, the world needs a lot more copper and a lot more lithium. Pacheco highlighted that Chile has one of the largest copper reserves in the world and, in the case of lithium reserves, there is the so-called lithium triangle formed by Chile, Bolivia and Argentina. “Bolivia has more than us, but lithium in Bolivia comes with magnesium and lithium needs almost perfect levels of purity,” he noted. Codelco and the Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile (SQM) reached an agreement for the joint exploitation of the lithium in the Atacama salt flat. The public-private partnership of which the details were known at the end of May will include the creation of a new company that will begin operating in January 2025, where the state company will have the majority of the shares (50% plus one), and will allow them produce the so-called white gold until 2060. With this, the Chilean State will directly enter as a producer of the thriving mining industry. “We are not only aiming to increase production. We are not only saying that we are going to produce more lithium with less water, but we are creating a public-private model that many people view with distrust. The good thing is that neither Codelco nor SQM view it with distrust,” he assured. “But here is the bad news,” Pacheco warned after describing the opportunities for the South American country's mining industry. In 1990, he noted, Chile produced one and a half million tons – 1.2 million from Codelco – and by 2004 the figure increased to 5.5 million tons mainly because the world's largest mining companies moved in. “We have had stagnant copper production for 20 years. The question they ask us is if the world needs copper, how much will they be able to increase their production to fill this unsatisfied demand. Our response is not very clear, because we have too many pending issues,» said Pacheco in relation to building social legitimacy to develop mining, innovate and carry out a different mining, that does not use continental water. Copper in Chile is produced in areas deserts where water is critical. Codelco consumes 5,500 liters per second of water. “We are the number one electricity account in Chile, with 10% of all the demand of Chilean society,” said the president of the state copper company. “If Chile does not increase its copper production, Chile is making life more difficult for the planet in its energy transition. That is a message that we hear clearly in Europe and in the world,» he added. Marcel stressed that Latin America is going through a particular moment of international attention and that the important thing is to see how countries are going to take advantage of it because «it will not last.» forever». In the case of Chile, he maintained that the source of the South American country's comparative advantage is not only non-renewable natural resources, but also lithium, renewable energies, green energy production and the digital economy. And that is where they are taking the first steps. The Council of the Americas chose to hold the event in Chile because of “its stable economy, strategic location and commitment to sustainability.” The Chilean economy grew 3.5% in April and the perspective of financial entities is that in the second quarter a Gross Domestic Product of between 2.6% and 3.1% will be recorded, the largest increase in two years . Susan Segal, president of the American business organization, highlighted this morning how the production and export of strategic resources, such as copper, lithium and green hydrogen, are allowing Chile to consolidate itself as a “protagonist of the energy transition.” “Chile has the opportunity.” to be an investment destination that provides added value to products in the manufacturing chain, which would generate more quality jobs and an increase in economic activity,” said Segal, who is very knowledgeable about the Chilean reality. But as Minister Marcel warned, Latin America is going through a particular moment of great international attention and we must know how to take advantage of it because «it will not last forever.» Subscribe here to the EL PAÍS Chile newsletter and receive all the current information keys from the country.