SANTIAGO (Reuters) – Chile’s SQM, the world’s second-largest lithium producer, stated it has suspended operations on the Atacama salt flat in Chile as a consequence of highway blockades.

“Since we have no idea how lengthy the highway blockade will proceed, it isn’t potential for us to estimate the monetary affect of the stoppage,” the corporate stated in a press release dated Saturday.

Indigenous teams for days blocked public roads that result in mining operations within the south of the salt flat, the world’s largest lithium deposit, the place SQM and U.S. agency Albemarle (NYSE:) extract the metallic, stopping staff, provides and lithium from coming into or leaving.

The Atacama Indigenous Council, nevertheless, on Saturday stated that protesters would finish the occupation after the mining ministry promised that President Gabriel Boric would come to the realm. It was not instantly clear if protesters remained within the space on Sunday.

The demonstrations had been sparked by an settlement signed final month between SQM and state-run agency Codelco that indigenous leaders stated sidelined native communities regardless of a latest authorities promise of a dialogue to debate lithium mining within the Atacama.