An Aussie company is leading a consortium that wants to break new ground with the application for an environment permit for a new Lithium mine.

Australia's Lithium Power International (LPI), Canada's Bearing Lithium and a group of Chilean investors plan to invest US$500 Million in their subsidiary's Minera Salar Blanco's (MSB) Maricunga project, after getting approval on an environmental application.  It would be Chile's first lithium production project outside the giant Salar de Atacama.  But the tinier Maricunga salt flat sits in northern Chile's "lithium triangle", containing the largest and highest quality lithium brine deposits.

Chile is already the world's second largest producer of the mineral - behind Australia - but the Maricunga project is expected to add the production of another 20,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent and 74,000 tonnes of potassium chloride annually over a 20-year mine life.  And the Chilean government has plans to develop even lithium production on dozens of smaller sites near Maricunga.

MSB CEO Cristobal Garcia-Huidobro says the current plan exceeds the legal standards set by the Chilean government.