Company: SQM
Filing Date: 2025-04-24
Form Type: 20-F
Source: 0000909037-25-000020
Chunk: 115

Company: CHEMICAL & MINING CO OF CHILE INC
Filing Date: 2025-04-24
Form: 20-F
Item: Item 4A
Chunk 115
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 potassium salts, and as such it is in a production stage. The Salar de Atacama deposits are owned by Corfo, which grants special operating contracts or administrative leases to private companies for the extraction of brine. SQM and Albemarle have a lease agreement with Corfo to extract and produce lithium from brines stored in the Salar de Atacama deposit. Consequently, SQM must follow the terms of the agreement and also the conditions established in current RCAs in order to retain operations in the Salar de Atacama. Exploration is routinely carried out within the established areas.
SQM leases an area of about 1,400 square kilometers with permission to extract brines from an area of 820 square kilometers with two core operations. It currently produces lithium at its southwest operation. The lease was signed in 1993 and expires on December 31, 2030.
The closest cities are Calama and Antofagasta, located 160 and 230 kilometers west of the site, respectively. From Calama, the road to the site is through Route R-23, and from Antofagasta, it is via Route B-385.
SQM’s mineral resource in the Salar de Atacama is constituted by in-situ brine within a porous media, and the resource estimate depends on the brine concentration, reservoir geometry, and drainable interconnected pore volume. Within SQM’s concessions, the lithium and potassium resources were estimated based on extensive exploration and many depth-specific samples from each unit.
The geology of the Salar de Atacama is characterized by sedimentary, evaporite, igneous and volcanic rocks from the Paleozoic to the Holocene eras, as well as recent unconsolidated clastic deposits and evaporitic sequences. The salt flat itself resides in a tectonic basin of recent compressive-transpressive behavior and is bounded by high angle reverse and strike-slip faults. The Salar de Atacama surface is constituted by recent evaporitic deposits, where over time the process of evaporation has precipitated salts, and surficial clastic sediments are found mainly along the salt flat margins. The salt crust is mainly composed of halite, sulfates, and occasional organic matter, with alluvial facies in the peripheral zones. 
Evaporitic and clastic deposits within the salt flat host brine with depth and are delimitated and cut by local fault systems; several structural blocks have been identified due to recent fault displacement.
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