"Indigenous groups ask Chile court to pause community review of Codelco-SQM lithium deal", 15 July 2025

...Two Indigenous groups in northern Chile have asked a local court to suspend a state-led community review process that is required for a lithium partnership between copper giant Codelco and lithium miner SQM...

The Indigenous community of Coyo and the Atacameno Association of Irrigators and Farmers of San Pedro de Atacama each independently filed legal challenges...accusing Chilean economic development agency Corfo of not properly carrying out a consultation process to seek their input on the partnership.

The process is one of the final conditions for a deal to go into effect...

The Coyo community and the Atacameno Association of Irrigators and Farmers, which has Indigenous members, said they needed more information and time to be able to provide informed consent on the plan. The Antofagasta court on Friday accepted their challenges, according to a court document. It ordered Corfo to respond to the allegations within 15 days, and asked Codelco and SQM to provide comments.

Corfo told Reuters that the consultation process was still in progress...

Codelco declined to comment, while SQM did not immediately reply to a request for comment...