"Chile unveiled a joint venture between state-owned Codelco, the world's top copper producer, and private firm Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile (SQM), to extract lithium from the Atacama Salt Flat on Monday. The partnership, called Nova Andino Litio, will focus on extracting lithium from the Atacama Salt Flat, home to one of Chile's largest lithium reserves. The public-private partnership, launched as part of Chile's National Lithium Strategy, was unveiled at a ceremony attended by members of the board of the newly established Nova Andino Litio. The event was attended by Maximo Pacheco, Codelco's board chairman and newly appointed president of Nova Andino, Ricardo Ramos, SQM's CEO and vice president of the new company, and Chilean President Gabriel Boric, who joined for the official photo ceremony. "We are witnessing a partnership between Chile's two largest companies - one private, SQM, and one state-owned, Codelco - to create the world's biggest lithium producer and restore Chile's position as the top lithium producer in the world," Pacheco said during the event. "I want to say that I am confident that with this alliance, one plus one will equal three. By bringing Codelco and SQM together, we will create tremendous value and achieve all the objectives we have set," Ramos said in his remarks. The public-private partnership will carry out activities of "exploration, exploitation, production and commercialisation of lithium in the Atacama Salt Flat until 2060," according to a statement released by Codelco. The company plans to produce around 300,000 tonnes of lithium annually. In 2022, Chile produced more than 200,000 tonnes of the so-called white gold."