Company: SQM
Filing Date: 2025-04-24
Form Type: 20-F
Source: 0000909037-25-000020
Chunk: 125

Company: CHEMICAL & MINING CO OF CHILE INC
Filing Date: 2025-04-24
Form: 20-F
Item: Item 4A
Chunk 125
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 Earl Grey lithium deposit at Mount Holland, approximately 100 kilometers south of Southern Cross in Western Australia and 500 kilometers east of Perth. 
•A spodumene concentrator facility located at the Mount Holland site with a nominal production capacity of 383,000 metric tons per annum of dry spodumene concentrate at a grade of 5.5% Li2O. 
•A refinery in development, located in the Kwinana industrial precinct approximately 45 kilometers south of Perth, with the capacity to produce 50,000 metric tons per annum of battery-grade lithium hydroxide product (LiOH) for export globally. 
•The non-process infrastructure (NPI) required to support the Mount Holland and Kwinana sites including roads, buildings, accommodation and the provision of logistics and utilities.
The Mount Holland project is located in the Forrestania Greenstone Belt (FGB) of the Archean Yilgarn Craton of Western Australia. Exploration by Kidman Resources Limited ("Kidman Resources") beginning in 2016 defined numerous occurrences of rare element pegmatites across the FGB, the most significant of which is the Earl Grey pegmatite group. On September 11, 2017, Kidman Resources and SQM entered into an asset sale agreement, and SQM acquired its interest in the tenements for a total investment of US$110 million. Pursuant to the asset sale agreement, the parties agreed to form an unincorporated joint venture to mine and process spodumene ore into spodumene concentrate or lithium hydroxide. The Mount Holland JV was established by the unincorporated joint venture agreement dated December 21, 2017, between SQM Australia and MH Gold, a then wholly owned subsidiary of Kidman Resources. Wesfarmers acquired Kidman Resources in 2019, which resulted in Wesfarmers taking over Kidman Resources’ interest in the Mount Holland JV on September 23, 2019.
SQM and Wesfarmers announced a positive investment decision in February 2021 following the completion of a feasibility study by Covalent. The project commenced mining activities in the first quarter of 2022, with first ore mined in the fourth quarter of 2022, and the concentrator finished construction and commenced ramp up of production in 2023. The refinery is in construction with an expected completion date during the first half of 2025.
The Mount Holland project is focused on the exploitation of the spodumene hosted lithium