Santiago — The lithium industry is set to lose one of its key figures just as a nascent electric-car boom transforms the mineral from niche to mainstream status. That may be good news for Tesla. Julio Ponce, once the son-in-law of dictator Augusto Pinochet, has controlled Soc Quimica & Minera de Chile (SQM) since the early 1990s, fending off larger shareholder Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan thanks to a series of holdings companies and a pact with Japan’s Kowa. Once predominantly a crop-nutrient producer, SQM has become the world’s biggest exporter of lithium carbonate just as prices soar. But thwarting SQM’s chances of meeting rising demand for the mineral used in rechargeable batteries is a bitter three-year dispute over terms of its main concession. Ponce has been tarnished by allegations of illicit campaign financing and running a share-trading scheme that enriched himself at the expense of his shareholders, and government agency Corfo pushed doggedly for him to relinquish co...
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