Snapshot: On 9 July 2025, the Asociación Atacameña de Regantes y Agricultores de San Pedro de Atacama (ARASPA) and Atacameño Indigenous community of Coyo filed applications for protection (recursos de protección) before the Appeals Court of Antofagasta against the Chilean Government agency CORFO over deficiencies in the Indigenous consultation process regarding an agreement between state-owned enterprise CODELCO and SQM for the joint exploitation of lithium in the Salar de Atacama, in the Antofagasta region of northern Chile. The Appeals Court dismissed the claim in October 2025. The case is ongoing.

In April 2023, the Chilean President, Gabriel Boric, announced a new National Strategy for Lithium, with the goal of organising the exploitation of lithium in Chile through public-private partnerships, rather than awarding exploitation contracts to fully private companies.

Within this strategy, the Chilean Government agency Corporación de Fomento de la Producción (CORFO) tasked the state-owned enterprise CODELCO with organising the lithium exploitation in the Salar de Atacama, in the in the Antofagasta region of northern Chile. In December 2023, CODELCO announced an agreement with SQM, one of the two companies currently exploiting the lithium in the Salar, under a contract set to expire in 2030. The new agreement provides for the joint exploitation of lithium in the Salar from 2025 until 2060, organised through CODELCO and SQM subsidiaries Minera Tarar and SQM Salar.

Atacameño Indigenous communities complained of the process lack of transparency and organised protests blocking access to the Salar. In May 2024, the agreement was signed, subjecting its execution to an Indigenous consultation, to be organised by CORFO. In June 2024, the Atacameño Indigenous community of Coyo filed an application for protection (recurso de protección) against the agreement before the Appeals Court of Antofagasta, as it considered it should have been subject to consultation before its signature. In December 2024, the court dismissed the application because the agreement did not itself enable the exploitation of lithium.

On 9 July 2025, the Asociación Atacameña de Regantes y Agricultores de San Pedro de Atacama (ARASPA) and Atacameño Indigenous community of Coyo filed applications for protection before the Appeals Court of Antofagasta against CORFO alleging deficiencies in the ongoing Indigenous consultation process regarding the CODELCO – SQM agreement and asking for its suspension. The Court joined both proceedings, which were later joined by the Atacameño Indigenous community of Solor and SQM Salar as interested third parties.

The Indigenous communities argued that not all the provisions of the agreements had been included in the consultation, even though their possible effects on the Salar and ultimately their rights, particularly as regards water resources, should be comprehensively addressed, and that the methodology of the consultation had not been agreed to in accordance with the law. For its part, CORFO argued that it had complied with the law, since the consultation had been on aspects that could affect the communities.

The court ruled the application admissible but did not agree to a precautionary suspension. In September 2025, the consultation process was finalised. Some Indigenous communities pointed to a strategy to divide the different communities to achieve enough support.

On 2 October 2025, the Appeals Court dismissed the Indigenous communities’ applications, considering that the consultation did meet the legal requirements, as its standards were “much above” previous consultation processes. It added that some of the possible effects the communities highlighted would have to be evaluated in the environmental approval processes, rather than within this agreement. The Indigenous communities have appealed before the Supreme Court. The case is ongoing.