Chilean State miner Codelco, the world's largest copper producer, said on Friday it had created two subsidiaries to run a newly mandated lithium business amid a government plan to increase state control over the industry.
The government instructed Codelco in April to begin talks with companies running lithium mining operations in Chile's Atacama salt flats as part of a new lithium strategy that will see the state take majority stakes in all "strategic" projects.