German Students Visit Chile to Learn About Lithium

Renowned German geologist Heinrich Bahlburg brought 25 graduate students from the geology program at Münster University to tour the Salar de Atacama facilities in order to learn more about the production processes used at the site.

“Every moment and every place that we visited was fascinating,” said Heinrich Bahlburg, a geologist and professor who has worked in his field for many years. “We are very happy with everything that we learned today. We know that all of the knowledge that we acquired here will be very important for the students’ personal and professional development.”

Bahlburg, who brought a group of geology graduate students from Münster University in Germany, was very pleased with the tour. He said that he believes that geography and mining are very important aspects due to the absence of desert, salt flats and other conditions that are present in Chilean mining.

The tour of the salt flat was given by Luis Garbarini, the Superintendent of Geomensura’s Salt Flat Production Unit. He brought the group to various areas of the work site, including the WS-243 sampling pond, the MPO II sector pond observation area, the scaled pond and the lithium observation area. The students were impressed by the breadth and size of SQM’s Salar de Atacama facilities.

Luis Garbarini and Javiera Morandé explained the processes completed at each stop and answered the visitors’ questions, which referred to their field as well as the importance that lithium has and will have for progress in energy matters worldwide.