Business News
SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — The Chilean government’s newly announced plan to have the state take a majority stake in the lithium industry disconcerted business leaders, though analysts cautioned that the proposal appears to try to strike a middle ground between competing interests.
President Gabriel Boric announced in a national broadcast Thursday night that private companies will have to partner with the government in exploiting Chile’s lithium, a metal used to make rechargeable batteries.
Boric said the state would take a controlling interest in each partnership, leading some to call it a nationalization of the industry, while others disagreed.
“Phrising it…