SQM, the latest guise of an Anglo-Chilean Nitrate and Railway Company which had been formed by London businessmen in 1882, was founded in 1968 to reorganize the Chilean nitrate industry. Initially, its ownership was shared between the Chilean state and the Compañía Nitratera Anglo Lautaro S.A. During a second phase of reorganisation, the industry was nationalised, and was thus fully owned by the Chilean state. In response to the 1970s wave of neoliberalism, a process of privatisation started in 1983 and was successfully completed in 1988. In 2018, China's Tianqi Lithium Corp. Purchased 23.77% stake in SQM from Canadian mining companyNutrien Ltd. In 2019, Tianqi Lithium has come to an agreement over the governance of SQM with key shareholder Julio Ponce Lerou.。
To transport nitrates from its mines to the port, SQM operated a gauge railway from María Elena to Tocopilla. The railway consisted of two sections; a diesel line to Barriles, and an electrified line down to Tocopilla, which was very steep at around 4%, and included a switchback. All trains changed locomotives at Barriles. Per year, the railway transported 1.1 million tons of finished product to the port of Tocopilla and 12 million tons of caliche ore from various mining sites to the Pedro de Valdivia plant. In August 2015 unprecedented flash flooding caused numerous washouts on the electric section of the railroad, most notably the area around the switchback on the escarpment leading down to the port at Tocopilla. As a result of this, along with the closure of the Pedro Valdivia mine/plant, the railroad ceased all operations, both electric and diesel, in late November 2015. All railroad staff were laid off and all railroad equipment stored at Tocopilla and Maria Elena awaiting possible sale or scrapping. The end of a historic railway. Trucks are now hauling product from Maria Elena/Coya Sur plants to the port.
Controversies
People associated with former senior managers in the company were in 2016 and 2017 investigated by the Chilean national police in relation to allegations of tax evasion and bribery. This investigation was referred to by La Nación, a major Chilean newspaper, as "the SQM Affair". On 13 January 2017, as part of an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission into violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, SQM agreed to pay a $30 million penalty to resolve parallel civil and criminal cases. According to the investigation, the company made $15 million in improper payments to Chilean political figures and others connected to them in a seven-year period.
