Chile is making a renewed push for investment in battery technology in return for access to its lithium deposits, piquing interest from China, Japan and Europe as global firms look to tie up supply of the metal vital for the shift to electric vehicles.
The South American country, the world's No. 2 lithium producer, has held global road shows ahead of a second lithium-for-investment tender, according to officials and Chilean government documents.
These have attracted dozens of firms in China as well as Japanese battery makers like Toshiba Corp. and Russia's state nuclear agency Rosatom, the documents show, lured by potential access to Chile's huge deposits of the "white gold" under the arid salt flats in the Atacama desert.