My Top 5 Video Games

The games that gave me the most enjoyment and have stuck with me over the years.

Compare and contrast the way BBC News, ITV news and Channel Four News report the same political news story?

Curran and Seaton (p.341-3) believe that each of these channels has its own distinct purpose and take on news events; that the BBC try to purvey an image that its audience are ‘participants’ in the great actions of the nation, that commercial channels like ITV popularise the news medium and Channel 4 cater for the interests of a minority audience in a way that extends the idea of public service broadcasting. This theory was reinforced by their coverage of Culture Secretary Maria Miller’s resignation from cabinet on the 9^th April 2014 following a scandal over her expenses.

The expenses scandal was a story that first broke in 2009 when The Daily Telegraph newspaper revealed that most MPs had been spending taxpayer’s money on personal items. According to Blumler and Coleman (p.141-2) it caused a, ‘seemingly enduring stain upon the entire political class grew as public indignation exploded.’ Expenses became what Bennett and Lawrence (p.25) refer to as a ‘news icon’ because it symbolised larger cultural themes in British society, namely widening isolation between the elected and the electorate. Expenses led to ‘intensive public discussion’ (Bennett and Lawrence, p.26-7) where the topic appeared in a range of media including documentaries and films (Brooke, p.244-8).

Miller’s resignation was a major story in and the fact it involved a matter that had captured the public’s imagination meant it required extensive attention. All the channel’s evening bulletins led with the story and dedicated at least two packages and a two-way with their political editors offering commentary. The BBC dedicates 10 minutes to the story in its 30 minute bulletin, ITV dedicates 8 of 30 minutes, and Channel 4 covers the story for 22 minutes by including two live studio interviews in its 45 minute programme.

All use the same footage of Miller giving an interview where she explains her decision by saying she doesn’t want to be a distraction. The interview is a close-up shot so the audience can register her emotions (Erikson, p.630), which is something that the BBC and ITV voiceovers draw the audience’s attention to. All use the footage in the tease; Channel 4 use it at the beginning of the programme before any of the presenters have spoken while the BBC and ITV have the presenters introduce the clip as part of a trail of other news-stories. Evidently the BBC and ITV saw the story as just one of the stories that happened that day whereas Channel 4 saw it as the story of the day.

Channel 4 and ITV edit Miller’s interview as, “it’s become clear to me that this has become an enormous distraction and it’s not right that I’m distracting from the incredible achievements of this government.” BBC edits this last line out and include her saying, “I hoped that I could stay but it’s become clear to me that this has become an enormous distraction.” The BBC also uses the footage to end the first package with the reporter cuing it as, “her emotional decision to quit.” Miller then gives a statement with frequent stumbles: “I, I want to make sure the… situation… is is clear to everybody and make sure I can…move on.” Then the reporter closes the package by saying how the country has not moved on from expenses. In terms of what Esser (p.417) refers to as a ‘news situation’, Miller’s interview would be deemed a ‘partially controlled situation’ because while the story comes about because of wrongdoing the interview itself isn’t adversarial and Miller is able to get a message across about herself and the government. Zaller (p.127) hypothesised that the more strenuously politicians try to control news coverage; the more journalists will resist covering them. The BBC probably saw her line endorsing the government as an attempt to control the situation and therefore used the clips that exclusively focused on Miller’s decision.

When cuing their opening packages ITV and the BBC open by referring to Miller’s words about her resigning because she’d become a distraction, they both follow this by quoting opposing interpretations held by the leaders of the Conservative and Labour Parties. Alternatively Channel 4 starts with a two-way of its political editor giving commentary, this is cued by a more interpretive script which says expenses had not been forgotten, Miller was ‘pushed’ and asks the questions; what does this mean about MP’s integrity, Cameron’s judgement and the safety of Miller’s seat? 

All of the packages comment on press criticism about Miller, they all represent this by showing headlines while Miller walks in slow-motion in the background and the reporter gives commentary via a voiceover.  The story first emerged in the press so it needed to be mentioned by all, the fact the story had been running for a while meant that voiceover simply summarised this part of the story so that it only takes up 10 to 15 seconds because it was old news. Channel 4 was the only one to attribute headlines to newspapers which gives a clearer understanding of the public debate by knowing who was making the comments; this also served the programme’s narrative because one of those newspapers’ editors is interviewed later on and the Telegraph’s role in the scandal is discussed in detail.

Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) feature in all the packages, Jones (p.177) notes that PMQs is one of the few things to feature regularly in news packages from inside Westminster due to the potential for debate and noise. PMQs from that day featured lively exchanges between Cameron and Miliband as both questioned each other’s leadership ability in statements that led to loud cheers from their parties. All the packages edit in both ‘scoring’ points against each other and show them each shaking their heads as the other speaks. The BBC does feature more footage than the others, including Cameron stressing that politicians are honest and Miliband saying this story is about Cameron’s apologist attitude towards unacceptable behaviour. The BBC and Channel 4 packages precede the PMQs section with the same sound-bites of Cameron stating earlier in the week that he believed Miller should keep her job, whereas ITV state this was his stance in a voiceover by the reporter. ITV probably chose not to focus too much on Cameron’s U-Turn because they felt their subsequent opinion poll about him was critical enough. All the broadcasters try to be fair, balanced and impartial by covering both sides of the political argument. (Jones,p.172)

BBC and ITV both briefly show and analyse Miller giving a 37-second apology for her expenses in the Commons a few days before. The BBC comment on how brief it is and ITV suggest it was made grudgingly, both presenting her as showing contempt to the accusations against her. This is what Ekström and Johnanson (p.64) define as a ‘talk scandal’ in which a political career is jeopardised by a verbal utterance. Alternatively Channel 4 believes this was just part of the reason for her resignation and is only touched upon briefly in the political editor’s analysis. Instead they say ‘the final straw’ was Miller’s aide appearing on television saying this scandal was a ‘witch-hunt’ against Miller, this led to the Prime Minister then pressuring her to resign. The BBC mention Cameron’s backroom role in her resignation, while ITV simply refer to his “opaque” response to the question of whether he was involved in her resignation during PMQs in which Cameron says people should accept Miller’s reasons at face value.

ITV does not discuss Miller’s expenses scandal in detail only saying she was initially found not guilty of the charge by a Labour member. Channel 4 and BBC analyse the complex details of her mortgage claims and the legality of it through voiceovers and text graphics.  Channel 4 goes into the most detail about the following cabinet re-shuffle by saying there are only three women sitting on it and the new Women’s minister has had the equalities responsibility removed from her brief because she voted against gay marriage. BBC mentions the number of women and who assumed Miller’s job while ITV just says who has new roles.

All broadcasters follow this up with a package set in Miller’s seat of Basingstoke which includes vox pops from constituents. BBC and ITV use answers which focus more on the subject of expenses and how politician’s treat the system, ITV even suggest people are ignorant of the fact that the regulatory system for expenses is independent from MPs based on one of the answers they get. Both the BBC and ITV use graphics and voiceovers to explain how the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) has changed. BBC ask Conservative MP Gerald Howarth whether it is right for Westminster to still be involved in any way with expenses to which the MP replies yes. ITV ask a committee member for IPSA whether people are aware things have changed to which he replies they need to get the message out. They also do interviews with MPs Nick Clegg and Nadine Dorries who have opposing views over whether MPs should have expenses. Channel 4 has a more specific focus because it uses answers that reflect Miller’s reputation in the town and ask the public and the UKIP candidate there whether she might lose her seat to UKIP at the next elections. Both Channel 4 and the BBC close the package by mentioning Miller will get £17,000 in compensation for resigning from cabinet, but only Channel 4 clarifies that she has promised it to a local charity. ITV look into popular opinion further by referring to their ‘exclusive’ online polls asking about Miller’s resignation and Cameron’s handling of the affair.

All conclude with two-ways by their political editors, according to Jones (p.174) it is done this way to suggest their input is a conversation with the presenter rather than a lecture because the former is more engaging to the audience. The political editors have the last say on the matter, with ITV and the BBC’s commenting after the package and Channel 4’s featuring at the beginning and end of the news; this means they are the audience’s lasting impression on the story (Esser p.421). Both the ITV and BBC editors focus on how angry the public are about expenses and how Miller and Cameron underestimated that and therefore made blunders. ITV finish by saying that’s the end of the matter while BBC says UKIP will exploit this scandal. Channel 4 focuses more on the workings of power; saying Cameron had appeased backbenchers, Miliband had missed an opportunity to score a goal at PMQs, the Telegraph was probably unfair in portraying Miller’s guilt and how Miller made things worse for herself by having aides spread messages about a ‘witch-hunt.’

Channel 4 follow their second package with the presenter saying they had tried to get an MP to interview in the studio but none were available. The expenses scandal was embarrassing for the majority of Westminster therefore it is understandable that many would have wished to make themselves unavailable. (Dalen, Albæk, Vreese, p.151) Davis (2009, p.205) notes that the primary reason politicians speak to the media is to get publicity which is reflected by all the packages; input from the main parties primarily comes from sourced material like PMQs and Miller’s interview, the only exception is Clegg and Howarth defending the expenses system. Otherwise the political figures who do speak have something to gain from publicity; Dorries has a chance to attack expenses, UKIP to publicise itself and IPSA raise awareness of their work which ITV say is being overlooked.

Channel 4 interviews Nigel Farage and a former Telegraph editor in live two-ways. Both are characterised by adversarial questions. Farage is criticised for UKIP’s ‘appalling’ record for expenses in the European Parliament, Farage adopts a tactic of self-repair to re-focus the issue by saying he is using EU funds to get Britain out of EU which is a matter some of the electorate agree with. (Ekström p.690) The Telegraph editor is asked whether criticism of Miller was due to her involvement with Leveson and support for gay marriage, the editor gives a ‘minus response’ where he denies the suggestion and distances himself from it by saying this is about preventing MPs ‘marking their own homework’ when it comes to expenses. (Schegloff, p.59)

Curran and Seaton’s theory about the channels are largely vindicated. The BBC and ITV’s coverage are both rather surface accounts of what happened and interpret it almost exclusively as being about Miller and expenses. The BBC tries to involve the audience in the story by commenting heavily on the public’s anger over expenses and ITV expresses similar views while trying to engage popular opinion with its poll. Channel 4 is catering for those who have a special interest in politics by including more detail, open questions and interpretation about the scandal itself and its repercussions, thereby giving the audience more information to base their judgements on. Channel 4 also challenges assumptions the other channels made, first by asking whether press coverage of Miller was fair and that it was right she resign and secondly by challenging the assumption that UKIP can exploit this.
                                                                                                         

Bibliography

Bennett, W. and Lawrence, R. (1995) News icons and the mainstreaming of social change. Journal of Communication 45(3): 20–39.

Blumler, J. and Coleman, S. (2010) Political Communication in Freefall: The British Case—and Others? International Journal of Press/Politics 15(2) 139–154.

Brooke, H. (2010) The Silent State: Secrets, Surveillance and the Myth of British Democracy, Windmall.

Chapman, J. and Kinsey, M. (2009) Broadcast Journalism: A critical introduction, Routledge.

Curran, J Seaton, J. (1997) Power Without Responsibility, Routledge.

Dalen, A., Albæk, E. and Vreese, C. (2011) Suspicious minds: Explaining political cynicism among political journalists in Europe, European Journal of Communication 26 (2) 147-162.

Davis, A. (2007) Investigating Journalist Influences on Political Issue Agendas at Westminster, Political Communication, 24(2) 181-199.

Davis, A. (2009) Journalist-source relations, mediated reflexivity and the politics of politics, Journalism Studies 10 (2) 204-219.

Ekström, M. (2009) Announced refusal to answer: A study of norms and accountability in broadcast political interviews. Discourse Studies 11 (6) 681-702.

Ekström, M. and Johansson, B. (2008) Talk scandals. Media, Culture & Society 30(1) 61–80.

Eriksson, G. (2011) Adversarial moments: A study of short-form interviews in the news. Journalism 12 (1) 51-69.

Esser, F. (2008) Dimensions of political news culture: sound bite and image bite news in France, Germany, Great Britain, and the United States. International Journal of Press/Politics 13(4) 401–428.

Franklin, B. (ed.) (1992) Televising Democracies, Routledge, London.

Franklin, B., Hamer, M., Hanna, M., Kinsey, M., & Richardson, J.E. (2005) Key Concepts in Journalism Studies, Sage.

Hudson, G. and Rowlands, S. (2012) The Broadcast Journalism Handbook, Pearson

Jones, N. (2009) Reporting Politics. in  Chapman, J. and Kinsey, M. (eds.) Broadcast Journalism: A critical introduction, Routledge, pp.171-180.

Lee, F. (2012) The life cycle of iconic sound bites: politicians’ transgressive utterances in media discourses. Media, Culture & Society 34(3) 343–358.

Negrine, R. (1999) Parliaments and the Media: A Changing Relationship? European Journal of Communication 14 (3) 325-352.

Robinson, N. (2009) Moats, Mortgages and Mayhem http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00lh47j

Schegloff, E. (2007) Sequence Organisation in Interaction: A Primer in Conversation Analysis. Cambridge.

Zaller, J. (1998) The Rule of Product Substitution in Presidential Campaign News. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 560 (Nov.) 111–28.

Critical review of Frank Esser's Dimensions of Political News Cultures

Frank Esser, Dimensions of Political News Cultures: Sound Bite and Image Bite News in France, Germany, Great Britain, and the United States, The International Journal of Press/Politics October 2008 13: 401-428.

Professor Frank Esser’s 2008 study into the length of sound and image bites in broadcasting in four western democracies forms the statistical basis of an analysis of media coverage in those nations during political election campaigns. This enables him to assess the value of multiple hypotheses made about media and political cultures involved in these countries. Primarily it seeks to test Patterson’s (1993: 74-5) assertion that candidates in countries like the USA have become ‘voiceless’ due to the decline of their verbal input into election coverage and as well as Bucy and Grabe’s (2007) theory that image is becoming increasingly important in political and journalistic cultures due to it subconscious impact upon audiences.

Ultimately this allows Esser to make conclusions about the levels and manner of journalistic intervention in the broadcasting of election campaigns. In professional journalism, the media structure influences the extent of journalistic interventionism in the political structure. This model asserts that interventionism occurs when public opinion is distrustful of political institutions. Media that has achieved a high status of independence, especially from political control, is more likely to be interventionist. Consequently interventionist reports are made up of sound bites of politicians that tend to be rather short whereas those from the journalists tend to be longer. High interventionism in an election campaign also leads to “a smaller amount of election news coverage in general.” Journalists as opposed to politicians or the subject being enabling them to “increase their influence, authority, and prestige.”

The statistical basis of the study was compiled by a multinational team of ‘coders’  categorising material from Germany, France, the UK and the USA in order to calculate the time amounts that feature in tables dedicated to things like news situations and images bites. At times it is missing a miscellaneous option, meaning answers can seem oddly specific and limited especially when it comes to news that is regarded as anti-candidate, where apparently you can only use television editing to be rude in three ways. The quantitative nature of the study also can lead to ambiguities as to the significance of terms such as ‘interventionist’, although this is defined as a time in which a journalist makes professional interpretations it does not state whether this means the news is biased, objective or impartial. Qualitative information is provided in the form of context on occasions, usually to explain exceptions and national uniqueness.

By mapping the television news in these countries, Esser reaches the conclusion that the French media is the most deferential (and ‘civilised’) towards politicians, giving politicians a greater voice and responding more favourably to their attempts to manage the news so they can prepare for a situation. British and German media’s tendency for interpretation in news reports leads to a moderately interventionist broadcasting culture, with the British media being more cooperative to politician’s attempts to manage the news despite using it as a platform to challenge politicians and put them on the defensive. Esser interprets findings about US news culture, with its briefer sound bites, as vindicating Zaller’s theory that high levels of news management leads to a more sceptical and hostile media because the media’s desire for independence. However Esser refutes the suggestion that this means US media is exclusively about confrontational campaigning when it comes to sound bites, noting that there is still ample ‘substance’ within them, which leads him conclude that the US just get to the point quicker.

The study does limit itself to a western-centric analysis and bases its conclusions upon two of the largest channels in those nations, excluding News International channels such as Fox News and Sky News which could have led to a more nuanced view of contemporary western broadcasting. As a result Esser encounters only one exception (Germany’s RTL channel) to his conclusion that organisational differences between market-oriented and public interest-oriented newsrooms do little to determine sound bite usage in news as opposed to national differences.

Bibliography

Bucy, Erik P., and Maria Elisabeth Grabe (2007) ‘Taking Television Seriously: A Sound and Image BiteAnalysis of Presidential Campaign Coverage, 1992–2004’, Journal of Communication 57(4), pp.652–75.
Frank Esser (2008) ‘Dimensions of Political News Cultures: Sound Bite and Image Bite News in France, Germany, Great Britain, and the United States’, The International Journal of Press/Politics, Vol.13, pp.401-428.
Patterson,Thomas E. (1993) Out of Order,  NewYork: Knopf.

FMC Corp.records higher minerals revenue and earnings in Q4 2014

By Adam Page
Published: Thursday, 05 February 2015

FMC has been a leading global producer of lithium and soda ash for several years. With the sale of its soda ash arm it has now concentrated its mineral focus onto lithium which it believes will enjoy an uptake in prices as interest in energy storage picks up.

US-based FMC Corp. has reported record soda ash production for the final quarter of 2014, while its lithium operations continue to improve, despite the challenges it faces at its facilities in Argentina.

According to its full year 2014 results, released late yesterday, FMC’s minerals segment recorded earnings of $166.7m in 2014, a 30% rise on 2013. During Q4 2014, earnings reached $47.9m, a 32% rise compared to Q4 2013.

Lithium revenues for the three months ending December 2014 were 3% lower when compared to Q4 2013. However, revenues for the full year were up 15% and earnings in the business were up approximately 125%, due to strong operational performance and higher volumes.

Last year, restructuring cost the lithium segment $9.1m, while the continued work at an environmental site incurred a corporate charge of $6.2m.

Speaking during a conference call today, Pierre Brondeau, CEO of FMC, said that its lithium portfolio had been "mixed" in 2014. He stated that there was an increasing interest in lithium, leading to a "tightening in carbonate supply and demand."

FMC did not disclose its lithium and soda ash production levels in its quarterly results.

Overall, the company posted revenue of $1.1bn in Q4 2014, a 3% decline on the previous year.

Shifting focus

With the agreed sale of its Alkali Chemicals business — the largest natural soda ash producer in the world — to Tronox, FMC will change its name to FMC Lithium.

Brondeau said that this was part of a wider company strategy to create "a more focused portfolio."

"In Lithium, we are optimistic that demand for downstream products, particularly for energy storage applications, will continue to grow rapidly," said Brondeau.

FMC anticipates higher prices for lithium hydroxide and carbonate based on the fact that the energy storage sector is growing at double digit rates. It expects earnings to be in the range of $15m to $25m in 2015.

The company produces a variety of lithium chemicals at its Hombre Muerto operation in northern Argentina. It noted that operational costs have been hit by Argentina’s import restrictions, which make it difficult to deliver certain critical engineering components.

"Despite strong underlying performance in our lithium business, we are unable to produce consistent results across multiple years due to the challenges of operating in Argentina's high-inflation environment," Brondeau said.

"We want to reduce costs as much as possible," Brondeau added, noting that, "adverse currency conditions in Argentina could be a significant headwind to earnings".

Brondeau also said that FMC would continue to take an interest in the electric vehicles (EVs) market despite a decline in energy prices.

"Gas prices are not the drive when you decide to buy a Telsa; it is part of it but it is not the driver," Brondeau said, pointing out that those who were likely to be interested, "will look beyond one year gas prices".

FMC expects the agreed sale of Alkali Chemicals and the agreed purchase of Denmark-based agricultural supplier Cheminova to be completed in Q1 2015. FMC believes that the sale can cut its debt pile following its $1.8bn purchase of Cheminova in September 2014.

€9.5bn EU glass industry still robust market for industrial minerals

FEVE say that while glass may be regarded as an “old-fashioned” industry continues to attract major investment, offers unique recycling opportunities and is very resilient in terms of supply and demand. Europe’s glass industry continues to be a strong market for industrial minerals, including silica sand and soda ash, particularly in container glass, as the latest figures from the FEVE show.

The European Union’s (EU) glass container industry contributes €9.5bn ($10.6bn*) annually to EU gross domestic product (GDP), according to an Ernst & Young study commissioned by FEVE.

Although the raw materials used in glass, which include silica sand, carbonates, quartz and soda ash, are easily available to European manufacturers, Feve believes that the supply concentration of these minerals could pose a risk for downstream consumers.

The industry invests up to €610m per year to innovate and maintain a network for 155 container glass plants across the EU, equaling 10% of the industry’s operational costs every year.

"For sand and soda ash in Europe we have a situation which is close to a monopoly," Fabrice Rivet, FEVE’s technical director, told IM.

"We have Solvay for soda ash and we have Sibelco for sand and so this maybe a challenge for the glass industry, it is not a pure monopoly but it is close," Rivet added.

Resilience in end markets 

Food and drink packaging is the main end market for container glass, often
finding buyers in the alcohol and perfume industry.

"We have seen a slight decrease in production, especially in 2009, [when it] decreased by about 4%," Michael Delle Selve, FEVE’s senior communications manager, told IM.

Delle Selve said that compared to flat glass and fibreglass, which are primarily used in construction, container glass can largely maintain its appeal despite competition from plastics, metal cans and Tetra Pak in the packaging sector.

"So we can say that we are quite resilient and, okay, we are not growing at a high pace but let’s say that with the crisis, there was an effect but it was acceptable," Delle Selve said.

Delle Selve feels that one of the main challenges the glass industry faces is its "old-fashioned" image, which he believes is in need of renewal.

Challenges

Delle Selve says that the glass container industry wants to work in a "friendly framework" in the EU.

"One of the main challenges is to keep this circular economy competitive and that is where we also need the support from policy-makers, we need their help in decreasing the cost of energy, the legislative burden for said industries," Delle Selve said.

"We see more and more [legislation on] energy consumption, carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions," Rivet told IM.

"That adds an additional burden in terms of cost to our members and that is really very difficult to cope."

FEVE says that it is looking at ways to reduce its CO₂ footprint, by using biomass as an energy source in processing as opposed to fossil fuels and producing lightweight bottles to reduce energy usage.

Recycling

FEVE celebrates the fact that container glass’ reusability allow it to function within a circular economy.

According to Ernst & Young’s study, seven out of every ten bottles gets recycled in the EU, meaning one tonne of recycled glass saves 1.2 tonnes of virgin raw materials and cuts CO2 emissions by 60%.

"So the future for us is to put into the loop the remaining 30% in the bottle-to-bottle loop because we actually want to recycle more glass," says Delle Selve.

"But again we need the support of other actors because the bottle-to-bottle loop does not just involve the glass industry but also consumers, the local authorities, the collection organisations, it is really a loop."

FEVE argue that this and the fact glass is the most inert packaging material according to science, appeals to consumer’s desire for safe and reliable materials.

*Conversion made January 2015

Originally published at: http://www.indmin.com/Article/3420703/95bn-EU-glass-industry-still-robust-market-for-industrial-minerals.html

Companies seek new lithium opportunities in Chile

This was initially published here on 30/01/15: http://www.indmin.com/Article/3422950/Companies-seek-new-lithium-opportunities-in-Chile.html

It was also republished on a blog by Juan Carlos Zuleta for EVworld: http://evworld.com/blogs.cfm?blogid=1308

The Chilean government and lithium producers want to secure public-private partnerships as they seek to exploit the world’s largest lithium reserves. The move has brought optimism back to Chile’s mining sector. 

US-based Albemarle Corp. and Li3 Energy have welcomed the new opportunities being offered by the Chilean government to develop the country’s vast lithium reserves.

On Tuesday, Chile’s National Lithium Commission advised the government to develop public-private partnerships, which will allow the state to control the mineral while enabling companies to rent lithium-producing properties.

"What the Commission did is to ratify the non-concessional character of lithium for old and new operations in Chile," Juan Carlos Zuleta, a lithium economist, told IM.

"[This] implies the need for private companies producing and interested in producing lithium to continue to sign contracts with the Chilean State to produce lithium," Zuleta added.

Li3 and Albermarle have both expressed interest in working with the Chilean government. "We applaud the work of the Commission and look forward to working with the government to promote the development of new lithium projects in Chile," said Patrick Cussen, chairman of Li3. 

"This will allow us to continue moving forward with our flagship Maricunga project," Cussen added. Chile is looking for more value-added activities as new projects are developed in the lithium sector. However, this will not affect current exporting activities or existing contracts.

Albemarle also has a stake in Chile’s lithium after merging with US lithium producer Rockwood Holdings Inc. Its CEO, Luke Kissam, was in Chile earlier this month to meet with Chilean officials and mining stakeholders. 

"Going forward I think they will develop a state entity to manage the development to future lithium projects and they are looking for participants who are interested in doing that, with a track record in the industry which is very positive from a Albemarle and Rockwood standpoint," Kissam said during a conference call yesterday.

According to the US Geological Survey (USGS), Chile has more than 57% of the world’s lithium reserves and it is the second largest producer in the world. 

Kissam says his company expects to be operating in Chile "forever." Albemarle now has access to Rockwood’s lithium carbonate sourced from the La Negra facility, based on natural brines from the Salar de Atacama, which Albemarle expects to be operating at until around 2030. 

Kissam said Albermarle want to shift work to higher-value applications away from technical grades. To achieve this it aims to increase its lithium carbonate capacity by mid-2015.

The company wants to look beyond developing the salars and getting involved in state research and development enterprises to help produce new uses for lithium. 

"We stand ready and able and we think we are in the best position to collaborate with them now, as well as in the long run allow us to be their preferred partner," Kissam said.

 Li3 Li3’s Maricunga lithium project covers approximately 1,888 ha (km²) in the northeast section of the Salar de Maricunga in Chile, the second largest salt flat in the country.

The company is in partnership with South Korea-based POSCO, for the development of a lithium direct extraction technology, which has so far achieved over 80% recovery of lithium carbonate in less than eight hours of processing Maricunga brine.

Last February, market intelligence SignumBOX, ranked the project as the 4th best undeveloped lithium project in the world out of the 37 brine projects. Last year, Li3 made the final payment for the Cocina 19-27 properties in the Maricunga Salar, adjacent to our existing Litio 1-6 properties that have an identified NI 43-101 compliant resource. 

Better luck this time?

The previous government under Sebastian Pinera tried to open up Chile’s lithium reserves in the Atacama Desert in 2012. In September 2012, a bid by Sociedad Quimica y Minera (SQM) was accepted, beating off competition from Li3 Energy and local juniors. However, it was declared void in October 2012 after it emerged that SQM had several lawsuits pending against the Chilean state.

On Monday, Pablo Wagner, the former deputy for the mining minister and his legal counsel, Jimena Bronfman, were indicted by a Chilean court accused of falsifying documents for SQM’s bid that failed to mention the lawsuits.

However, optimism and desire for growth is back in Chile’s lithium sector, a matter that President Michelle Bachelet included in her presidential manifesto. "We expect there will be interest from companies considering that now the rules of the game will be sufficiently clear and transparent," Zuleta told IM.

Videos made at Industrial Minerals

Here are some of the video packages I produced during my time at Industrial Minerals. Please follow the links to the website to view the full video:

Mines and Money Conference 2014:

http://www.indmin.com/Article/3410318/VIDEO-Mines-and-Money-14.html

Interview with Blair Way (I edited this together as a package but the footage was collected by another journalist):

http://www.indmin.com/Article/3408496/VIDEO-Flinders-Resources-speaks-to-IM-on-Woxna-graphite-mine-opening.html


A presentation by Valence Industries:

http://www.indmin.com/Article/3411821/VIDEO-Glenister-Lamont-of-Valence-Industries.html