At least five mining institutions have filed official complaints about outgoing Chilean president Gabriel Boric's push to create a new protective reserve for salt flats in the Atacama basin, home to most of the country's lithium reserves.
Boric, a leftist, is seeking to designate as many salt flats as protected reserves as possible before his term ends on 11 March and far-right Jose Antonio Kast is sworn in as president.
The proposed reserve, called ACMU Soncor, is part of Chile's national lithium strategy, a broad regulatory framework introduced in 2023 to oversee the country's lithium extraction industry.
Kast has already signaled his intention to overhaul the strategy, favoring a more open, pro-market approach that would likely scale back environmental protection.
Boric's salt flats' protection reserves have largely focused on isolated areas or regions where mining has a limited presence, but Soncor would protect 76,138 hectares in the Atacama basin, where Chile's only two active lithium projects operate alongside potassium and borates reserves.
Miners Albemarle and Codelco, Chile's national mining association Sonami, and Grupo Errazuriz firms NX, a potassium chloride producer, and SCM Copiapó, a company that develops and operates mining-support projects, have all objected to Soncor's creation, court records show.
Companies push back
Each company raised its own concerns with the proposal, but all five shared complaints about methodology and a alleged lack of transparency around Soncor's creation.
They collectively argue the reserve's boundaries were set arbitrarily, without technical justification, and note the environment ministry has yet to release the studies supporting the proposed protected area.
The firms also criticized timing and process, noting that the proposal's public consultation stage was scheduled over Christmas and New Year, when participation typically falls. Also, the companies were initially given 23 business days to respond, which they say should have been 60. Albemarle says some "crucial documents" were made available only two days before the initial deadline, later extended to 5 February.
All five also say the "objects of protection" — the species and ecosystems the government intends to safeguard — are vaguely defined.
Albemarle would be most affected. The lithium producer argues the reserve would extend over its operations, including areas containing mineral and water resources it is legally entitled to use and develop.
It also says the government is overlooking a binding agreement with Chile's first environmental court that sets governance frameworks to mitigate impacts and should avoid the need for a new reserve within areas where Albemarle holds rights.
Albemarle warns that imposing "absolute protection" without technical basis over brine resources could create unjustified restrictions with significant impacts on Chile's lithium production capacity.
At the same time, the company is asking the government to explicitly state that, if the reserve's boundaries remain unchanged, Albemarle's operations would be allowed to continue unaffected and be deemed compliant.
NX's 200,000 metric tonnes (t)/yr potassium salts plant would also be included in the the reserve, it says. Codelco could also be affected from 2031, when it takes control of SQM's lithium asset in the Atacama basin.
Both Codelco and Albemarle are requesting that the reserve area be reduced, with Albemarle also asking for the process to be suspended until it complies with Chilean law. NX and SCM Copiapó asked to void the current consultation and open a new one meeting minimum standards. Sonami requests clearer technical criteria, followed by a new public consultation process.
Delays imminent
The backlash could translate into delays Boric's administration cannot afford since it has fewer than 30 business days left in its term.
After the consultation closes, the environment ministry must publish the supporting technical background and a formal response to the miners' submissions, then issue a final decision.
The push-back does not automatically stop the reserve's creation, but it could delay it until after 11 March, especially if the public consultation process is restarted.
If Soncor is not officially created by the time Kast takes office, the likelihood for it not being created rises, especially since it could affect the mining sector, which should be a priority in Kast's economic agenda.
This situation does not affect any salt flat protection area that has already been created, just the one in the Atacama, Chile's largest and most prominent — both economically and for tourism — salt flat.
