Sociedad Química y Minera
Created in 1968 as a Sociedad Minera Mixta between private investors and the State of Chile (Compañía Salitrera Anglo-Lautaro 62.5% and CORFO 37.5%).Negotiations with Anglo-Lautaro to establish a partnership led to the creation of SQM, with the intent to restructure the declining nitrate production, increase investment and improve exploitation.In the years that followed, the business was internationalized through acquisitions and joint ventures:[3][5] In 2015, the largest shareholder with 32% was the Julio Ponce Lerou's Pampa Group .According to Volkswagen, there is an unresolved dispute about whether brine extraction causes an influx of fresh water and thus influences the groundwater at the edge of the salt flats.Through the 2006 acquisition of DSM Minera's iodine derivatives plant in northern Chile in 2006, Ajay-SQM Group added a fourth manufacturing site.SQM processes potassium nitrate at the Coya Sur plant in María Elena at 1,200 m altitude, and drives it 80 km to the port in Tocopilla, including in an electric truck.[13] People associated with former senior managers in the company were in 2016 and 2017 investigated by the Chilean national police in relation to allegations of tax evasion and bribery.[23] On January 13, 2017, as part of an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission into violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, SQM agreed to pay a $30 million penalty to resolve parallel civil and criminal cases.