Having the most lithium reserves and home to SQM, the second largest global lithium producer, Chile is keen to partner with India on tapping into the lithium value chain, The Indian Express reported.

"We are open (to it) if the Indian Government were to initiate anything formally," Alex Wetzig, Secretary General to Chile’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told the newspaper.

Even though the lithium found in India is in mineral form, different from Chile's salt pans, the Chilean company would still be capable of sharing expertise, just as it does in Australia, where also lithium is found in mineral form, Wetzig said.

Lithium is a non-ferrous metal and one of the key components in electric vehicle batteries. Notably, Chile has around 48 per cent of the total lithium reserves in the world, contained mostly in the Salar de Atacama, a large salt flat located in the north of the country.

This partnership would be beneficial to India, a lithium importer, as significant lithium reserves were discovered for the first time ever in the country, in February this year.

The new-found reserves are located at the foothills of the Salal-Haimana area of Jammu and Kashmir's Reasi district. The Geological Survey of India (GSI) estimated an inferred resource of 5.9 million tonnes of lithium ore there.

Earlier, in 2021, preliminary surveys by the Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research showed the presence of lithium resources of 1,600 tonnes in Mandya district, Karnataka.

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