Chile's SQM, the world's second-largest lithium producer, said it has suspended operations at the Atacama salt flat in Chile due to road blockades. "Since we do not know how long the road blockade will continue, it is not possible for us to estimate the financial impact of the stoppage," the company said in a statement dated Saturday. Indigenous groups for days blocked public roads that lead to mining operations in the south of the salt flat, the world's largest lithium deposit, where SQM and U.S. firm Albemarle extract the metal, preventing workers, supplies and lithium from entering or leaving.