South America

This production site of Albemarle in Chile is located at the Salar de Atacama, one of the driest deserts on earth. The surrounding conditions are ideal for the production of lithium carbonate on the basis of natural brines from the Salar. The production process begins with the treatment of the natural brine that is obtained from the Salar de Atacama's nucleus and put into open air pools, where thanks to the solar evaporation process it reaches a concentration of 6% lithium. To date, the production capacity has been expanded there to secure long-term supply in the growing markets for lithium. Future expansions are already in process.