TIANQI Lithium Corp., which lists shares on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, said there were errors in a Chilean government agency’s effort to block its purchase of a stake in local mining company SQM, Chilean newspapers La Tercera and El Mercurio reported Saturday.

Tianqi Lithium representatives challenged Chilean state development agency Corfo’s claim that buying the stake would enable China to dominate the world lithium market and emphasized that Tianqi Lithium is a private company, the papers said.

The Corfo case seeking to limit Chinese participation in Chilean lithium mining is being closely watched as companies around the world try to shore up supplies of the key material in electric vehicles and mobile phone batteries.

The head of Chile’s National Economic Prosecutor’s office, known by its Spanish-language acronym FNE, met March 29 with three lobbyists for the Chinese miner to discuss “Corfo’s complaint against Tianqi Lithium,” according to Chile’s lobbyist transparency website.

According to both papers, Tianqi Lithium’s lawyers told the FNE at the meeting that “this is a Chinese private company, open on the stock exchange, in which the Chinese Government has no interference.”

A Chilean public relations agency representing Tianqi Lithium locally said the statements were made to both papers. Tianqi Lithium representatives in China had previously declined to comment on the case.

Tianqi Lithium lawyers also told the FNE that the lithium market participation data used by Corfo in its claim were incorrect and overestimated Tianqi Lithium’s participation in the global lithium industry, the papers said.

Corfo, which manages natural resources including mining in Chile, filed the complaint. It seeks to avoid a potential sale of the 32 percent stake in SQM held by Canada’s Nutrien to Tianqi Lithium or any other company “controlled by the Chinese State.”

The agency said a sale to Tianqi Lithium or any company backed by the Chinese State could affect “the competitive rivalry of the market” of the key mineral used in the manufacture of batteries for electric cars.

Together, Tianqi Lithium and SQM, the world’s second-largest lithium producer after Albemarle, would control 70 percent of the world lithium market, according to the complaint.

The FNE has until August, with the possibility of further extensions, to determine whether to launch a full investigation.

Canadian fertilizer company Nutrien must sell its stake in SQM by next March as part of an agreement with regulators for the merger of Agrium and Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan, which created Nutrien.

(SD-Agencies)