Chile’s lithium exceptionalism: Strategic legacies and the contested future of the Salar de Maricunga

Vlado Vivoda, Natalie Ralph, Asmaa Khadim, Nigel Wight, and Payne Institute Director Morgan D. Bazilian write about how Chile’s approach, governed under an exceptional legal regime, created during the Cold War to safeguard potential nuclear applications, represents a case of lithium exceptionalism: a uniquely Chilean configuration shaped by historical legal restrictions, renewed state ambition, and intensifying global competition.  November 6, 2025.