Production Processes
We have the technological development and proven experience to carry out highly efficient production processes in each of our lines of business.
The brines extracted from the Atacama Salt Flats are deposited in solar evaporation ponds from which concentrated brines and salts are obtained using solar energy.
Las The concentrated brines are re-injected into subterranean salt deposits. The salts deposited in the evaporation ponds are duly collected and transported. Potassium Chloride, Potassium Sulfate and Boric Acid are obtained by grinding, floating, drying and compacting.
The solutions that result from the leaching of the caliche mineral in the plants of Pedro de Valdivia, Maria Elena and Nueva Victoria are used to produce Iodine from the iodate contained in them. The variations in the contents of iodine and other chemical components in the treated mineral, besides of the other operational parameters, require a high specific level of knowledge to handle the process in an efficient way. The solutions of caliche bleaching contain iodine in the form of iodate. Part of the iodate in the solution is reduced to iodide using sulfur dioxide which is produced when sulfur is burnt. The resulting iodide is combined with the rest of the original solution of iodate to free the elemental iodine. Then, the solid iodine is refined through a process of foundry and prill. In SQM we have obtained licenses in Chile and the United States for the processing of iodine prill.
