with 32% was the Julio Ponce Lerou's Pampa Group . In 2015, after flood damage to the railway, nitrate transport to the port by rail was replaced by trucking. In 2018, China's Tianqi Lithium Corp. purchased 23.77% stake in SQM from Canadian mining company Nutrien Ltd. In 2019, Tianqi Lithium has come to an agreement over the governance of SQM with key shareholder Julio Ponce Lerou. Products Specialty Plant Nutrition This product range is based mostly on formulated potassium nitrate. In 2019 its revenue was $724mio. Lithium In the Salar de Atacama in the Atacama desert of Northern Chile, SQM produces lithium carbonate and hydroxide from brine. As of 2020 SQM reported a capacity of 70kt of lithium carbonate with plans to expand to 150kt/y by 2020. There is some capacity to convert the carbonate to lithium hydroxide in Salar de Carmen. 2019 revenues from lithium were $505mio. In 2021, the lithium revenues were US$936.1 million. The process involves pumping up lithium rich brine from below the ground into shallow pans. Water is evaporated thanks to the strong sun and dry air. The brine contains many different dissolved ions, and as the concentration increases, salts precipitate out of solution and sink. The remaining liquid (the supernatant) is used for the next step. In the first pan, halite (sodium chloride or common salt) crystallises. This has insufficient economic value and is discarded. The supernatant, with ever increasing concentration of dissolved solids, is transferred successively to the Sylvinite (sodium potassium chloride) pond, the Carnalite (potassium magnesium chloride) pond and finally a pond designed to maximise the concentration of lithium chloride. The process takes about 15 months. The concentrate (30-35% lithium chloride solution) is trucked to Salar del Carmen. There, boron and magnesium are removed before, by addition of sodium carbonate, the desired lithium carbonate is precipitated out. SQM sells potassium chloride made from Sylvinite and potassium nitrate derived from the Carnalite. There is considerable focus on the use of water in this water poor region. SQM commissioned a life-cycle analysis which concluded that water consumption for SQM's lithium hydroxide and carbonate is significantly lower than that of the average for production from the main ore-based process, using spodumene, and in to environmental report claims that environmental KPIs such as animal populations are not affected by extraction. According to Volkswagen, there is an unresolved dispute about whether brine extraction causes an influx of