Producer
SQM
SQM (Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile; NYSE/Santiago: SQM; ~$10.5B market cap 2025; HQ Santiago, Chile) produces battery-grade lithium hydroxide monohydrate alongside lithium carbonate from the Salar de Atacama. SQM's Antofagasta chemical plant converts brine-derived lithium chloride concentrate to both Li2CO3 and LiOH·H2O for export. SQM is the world's largest single producer of lithium chemicals by volume. SQM's LiOH is produced via a causticization route (Li2CO3 + Ca(OH)2 → 2LiOH + CaCO3) rather than the direct spodumene route used by hard-rock converters. Battery-grade LiOH requires >56.5% LiOH content, low impurities (Na <0.005%, Fe <0.001%). In May 2024, SQM signed a public-private partnership with Codelco giving the Chilean state 50%+1 from 2025 to 2060. SQM produced 201,000 MT LCE total in 2024; LiOH accounted for a growing share as NMC-811 adoption accelerated. Source: SQM Annual Report 2023.
5
Inputs supplied
2
Goods downstream
3
Facilities
0
Stories
What they make
5 inputs SQM supplies
Click an input to see every good that depends on it, every country that produces it, and every other company in the supply chain.
chemical
Molten Salt Heat Transfer Fluid (NaNO2/NaNO3 for CSP Solar) →
chemical
Potassium Nitrate (KNO₃) — Specialty Fertilizer →
mineral
Lithium Carbonate →
mineral
Lithium carbonate / lithium hydroxide →
chemical
Lithium Hydroxide (Battery Grade) →
Where it shows up
Goods downstream
Essential goods that depend on something SQM makes, pick one to see the full supply chain.
Where they make it
3 facilities
SQM Antofagasta Chemical Plant (Chile) →
CLAntofagasta Region · processing
SQM's primary lithium hydroxide and lithium carbonate conversion facility in Antofagasta city, northern Chile. Receives lithium chloride concentrate trucked ~232km from Salar de Atacama evaporation ponds. Produces battery-grade LiOH·H2O (>56.5% LiOH; low Na, Fe, Mg impurities) via causticization route: Li2CO3 + Ca(OH)2 → 2LiOH + CaCO3. Separate from carbonate production lines. Antofagasta port is the export gateway for Chilean lithium hydroxide to Asia, Europe, and North America. SQM's LiOH production capacity was approximately 30,000-40,000 t/year as of 2023, with expansion underway. Source: SQM Annual Report 2023; S&P Global.
SQM Salar de Atacama Operations (Chile) →
CLAntofagasta Region · mining
World's highest-grade lithium brine operation; SQM pumps lithium-rich brine from beneath the Salar de Atacama (2,300m elevation; Atacama Desert). Brine lithium concentration ~1,800 mg/L (4-6x richer than other salars). Solar evaporation ponds cover ~7,500 ha; 12-18 month evaporation cycle produces lithium chloride concentrate that is trucked to Antofagasta for LiOH and Li2CO3 production. 2024 total LCE production 201,000 MT. Codelco will hold 50%+1 in operations from 2025-2060 per Chile National Lithium Strategy. Source: SQM Annual Report 2023.
SQM — Coya Sur Facility →
CLCoya Sur, Maria Elena, Antofagasta Region, Chile · manufacturing_plant
Primary SQM KNO3 production site. Feedstock from Salar de Atacama brine via pipeline. Production since 1986; 300,000 MT/yr expansion completed 2011. Atacama Desert; extreme water scarcity risk — lithium and nitrate brine extraction compete for same resource.
What else they do
Business segments
The company's full revenue map, where this supply-chain role fits within their broader business.
Lithium (Salar de Atacama — World #1)
45%Iodine (World #1 — 30%+ Global Share)
20%Nitrates & Fertilizers (CSP, Agriculture)
25%Potassium & Other Minerals
10%
Intelligence
What's known
Sourced claims about this company's role in supply chains, chokepoints, concentration, incidents, dual-use connections.
Did you know2023
SQM's Atacama operations extract three distinct critical minerals from the same desert geology: (1) Lithium — from underground Atacama brine, providing ~22% of global battery-grade lithium for EV batteries and energy storage; (2) Iodine — from Atacama caliche ore (SQM is world's largest iodine producer at ~30% global share); iodine is the active ingredient in medical X-ray/CT scan contrast agents (ioversol, iohexol), in thyroid disorder treatment (Lugol's solution), and in the iodine-PVA film that makes LCD polarizers functional; every CT scan, every LCD screen, and every iodized salt packet has a connection to Chilean Atacama iodine; (3) Potassium nitrate — for specialty agriculture AND as molten salt heat transfer fluid in concentrated solar power plants globally. One Chilean mining company simultaneously supplies: the battery materials for EV adoption (clean energy transition), the contrast agents for medical imaging infrastructure, and the thermal storage fluid for solar energy plants. SQM's Atacama operations are a multi-resource intersection of clean energy, medical diagnostics, and agriculture from a single geological formation.
Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile S.A. ↗Origin2023
The Atacama Desert region that SQM now mines for lithium was previously the site of Chile's most important historical export industry: saltpeter (sodium nitrate, 'Chilean saltpeter'). Chilean saltpeter was critical for global agriculture (nitrogen fertilizer) and military (gunpowder/explosives) in the 19th century — Chile controlled ~70% of global nitrate exports. The 1879-1884 War of the Pacific (Chile, Peru, Bolivia) was fought largely over Atacama saltpeter deposits. Chile won, acquiring Bolivia's and Peru's nitrate-rich coastal territories — Bolivia lost its Pacific coast, becoming landlocked. Chilean saltpeter wealth funded Chilean industrialization. Then, in 1913, Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch demonstrated industrial-scale ammonia synthesis from atmospheric nitrogen — the Haber-Bosch process made synthetic nitrogen fertilizer possible and destroyed the Chilean saltpeter monopoly within 20 years. Chile's saltpeter industry collapsed, causing economic depression. The same Atacama Desert lost its first geopolitical resource value (nitrates → Haber-Bosch) and then gained a new one (lithium → EV batteries). SQM is the inheritor of Chilean Atacama mining traditions that trace from 19th-century saltpeter wars through 20th-century economic collapse to 21st-century EV battery dominance.
Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile S.A. ↗