TIANQI Lithium Corp., which lists shares on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, will nominate two Chileans and a U.S. businessman to the board of lithium miner SQM, candidates seen as “safe choices” for the world’s No. 2 lithium producer as it faces booming demand.

Tianqi Lithium last year paid US$4.1 billion for a near-quarter stake in SQM, as Chinese companies scoured the globe for the ultralight battery metal needed to ramp up Chinese production of electric vehicles.

Lithium is a key component in the batteries that power cellphones and electric cars.

Tianqi Lithium’s U.S. nominee, businessman Robert Zatta, worked as a chief financial officer until 2015 for Rockwood Holdings, a top competitor of SQM in Chile’s Salar de Atacama, before it was purchased by the U.S.-based Albemarle, now the world’s top lithium producer.

Previously, Zatta had worked as an executive with Campbell Soup Co.

Tianqi Lithium also nominated Chilean attorney Francisco Ugarte, who represented the Chinese lithium producer in its 2018 purchase of the stake in SQM. The other Chilean nominee, economist Georges de Bourguignon Arndt, is currently on the board of LATAM Airlines, Latin America’s largest carrier.

Lithium analyst Joe Lowry called the candidates “non-controversial, safe choices.” He noted that Zatta, who has the most experience in battery metals, had been out of the business for several years.

Tianqi Lithium’s move comes days after executives from SQM top shareholder Pampa Group, which in 2018 fiercely contested Tianqi Lithium’s purchase of a stake in the Chilean miner, flew to China to meet with Tianqi Lithium chief executive officer Vivian Wu. (SD-Agencies)