By Fabian Cambero SANTIAGO (Reuters) -Chile will start talks with SQM over its operations in the Atacama “this semester” to convince the world’s No. 2 lithium mining company to sign onto a state-led public-private model, the economy minister said on Monday, while SQM said it would need to invest an additional $2 billion under the…
By Jonathan Stempel WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A Brazilian reinsurer entered a nonprosecution agreement and will pay $5 million to resolve a U.S. probe into a false story that the company had received a significant investment from billionaire Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. The U.S. Department of Justice said the payment by IRB Brasil Resseguros SA…
QUITO (Reuters) – Ecuadorean opposition lawmakers and President Guillermo Lasso – or his lawyer – are scheduled to testify this week in impeachment hearings that could see the conservative former banker censured and removed from office. WHAT IS THE PRESIDENT ACCUSED OF? Lasso, who has an antagonistic relationship with lawmakers, is accused of political responsibility…
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Mexican inflation slowed in the first half of April and reached its lowest level in a year and a half, the national statistics agency said on Monday, fueling expectations the central bank may have completed a long cycle of interest rate hikes. Annual headline inflation through mid-April hit 6.24%, further declining from…
BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil’s government is considering clarifying the size of each company’s tax benefits as part of a campaign to end tax exemptions and improve public finances, Finance Minister Fernando Haddad said in an interview with newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo published on Monday. Haddad stated that the current leadership of Brazil’s revenue…
By Catarina Demony and Gabriel Araujo LISBON (Reuters) – Trying to lure back wary foreign investors, Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva vowed on Monday to restore stability and credibility, inviting Portuguese businesses and others to build partnerships with his country’s companies. “Brazil is ready to go back to being a big country,” Lula…
By Clyde Russell LAUNCESTON, Australia (Reuters) -The spot price of iron ore tumbled to a four-month low as Beijing once again talked down the key steel raw material, but as usual the question is whether the intervention will lead to sustained lower prices. The spot price for benchmark 62% iron ore for delivery to north…
By Ernest Scheyder SANTIAGO (Reuters) -Chilean President Gabriel Boric’s plan to nationalize his country’s immense lithium industry is putting the spotlight on an emerging crop of filtration technologies aimed at revolutionizing how the metal is produced for the electric vehicle industry. In a national prime time address, Boric said last Thursday a new state-owned company…
By Lucila Sigal BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – In Argentina’s mountainous north, a strong pipeline of lithium projects close to coming online looks set to unlock a wave of production that could see its output of the key electric vehicle battery metal as much as triple within the next two years. The world’s fourth largest producer…
By Lucinda Elliott and Daniela Desantis ASUNCION (Reuters) – From Paraguayan capital Asuncion to Taipei and Washington, diplomats, officials – and farmers – are closely watching a tight election race that could determine Paraguay’s future ties with Taiwan. Paraguay will vote for its next president on April 30, choosing between a ruling party candidate pledging…
