Sustainable Production

Our lithium extraction process in the Salar de Atacama is environmentally friendly and focuses on the sustainable development and production of lithium. By concentrating lithium solutions and depositing by saturation and gravity, without the use of external substances, eliminating most of the other elements and reaching an approximate concentration of 6% lithium, 30 times more concentrated than the extracted brine.

This stage of the process lasts more than a year, and most of the energy used corresponds to solar energy, approximately 95,8%. When lithium reaches the desired concentration, this solution is sent to the chemical plant located in the Salar del Carmen, on the outskirts of the city of Antofagasta, where lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide are produced.

To learn about our entire sustainable lithium extraction and production process at SQM, we invite you to read our report on sustainable lithium production in Chile.

Committed to caring for the environment, respecting the ecosystem, flora and fauna and biodiversity in the Salar de Atacama, at SQM we work on production processes under strict national and international standards. For this reason, one of the most important actions of the operation is to measure the impact that the company's lithium production has, both on the environment and on communities and areas of operation. This is Life Cycle Analysis, an environmental management tool that objectively, methodically, systematically and scientifically analyzes the environmental impact generated by a process or product during its entire life cycle.

Measuring the carbon footprint in the lithium extraction process is a crucial aspect for both our operations and our products. In the case of lithium, the process is measured under strict, demanding and prestigious international standards, under the ISO standards 14040 and 14044. For this, we retain the services of Swedish engineering firm Afry to measure three variables: energy use, water consumption, and CO2 from operations. The results are used  to assess  different processes at SQM's own operations and communicate them, as the case may be, to different stakeholders. The Life Cycle Assessment ISO 14040 and 14044 standards are used for the calculations in these studies.

Additionally, we collaborate with Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) using an open source model for emissions calculations known as GREET. This is used to measure the levels of CO2, energy and water consumption in order to keep our emissions up to date and controlled. This method is used to calculate our emissions contribution to the ithium ion battery value chain. This arrangement has a reputational advantage because the, laboratory belongs to the United States Department of Energy, which provides support and credibility to data resulting from its studies.