India's Coal India Considers Acquiring Wealth Minerals' Lithium Assets in Chile
en.Wedoany.com Reported - On August 11, India's state-owned enterprise Coal India is evaluating the acquisition of Kuska Minerals, a Chilean lithium business subsidiary of Canada's Wealth Minerals, with the transaction involving the lithium resources held by Wealth Minerals in Chile. The two parties are also exploring an alternative plan to form a joint venture, with the acquisition structure, shareholding ratio, and investment amount yet to be determined.
Coal India and Kuska Minerals jointly applied to the Chilean government for lithium resource extraction permits in October 2025. After several months of negotiations, the two parties have entered the late-stage talks, but the potential transaction still awaits the Chilean government's completion of permit approval, and no formal acquisition agreement has been signed.
In 2026, Coal India initiated a procurement process for legal due diligence services regarding Wealth Minerals' Chilean brine lithium assets, with a procurement amount of approximately 26.79 million Indian rupees. The due diligence scope covers the asset ownership, permit conditions, regulatory requirements, and potential transaction arrangements of Wealth Minerals' Chilean subsidiary.
The Kuska salt flat lithium project is located in the Antofagasta Region of northern Chile, near the Chile-Bolivia border, with a mining concession area of approximately 10,500 hectares. Resource estimates published by Wealth Minerals indicate that the project holds indicated resources of 741,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent and inferred resources of 701,000 tonnes.
The project's 2024 preliminary economic assessment is planned based on an annual production capacity of 20,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent over a 20-year mining period, with direct lithium extraction technology proposed to process salt flat brine and produce battery-grade lithium carbonate. Whether the project can advance to the subsequent development stage depends on the signing of a special lithium operation contract between the Chilean government and Kuska Minerals.
