Rio Tinto invests in major Chilean lithium project

Mining companies are scrambling to get their hands on lithium, a key ingredient in electric car and smartphone batteries. Argentina, Bolivia and Chile together form the so-called Lithium Triangle, home to 60 percent of the world's deposits of the metal, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS). The Maricunga salt flat in northern Chile is second only to the Atacama salt flat on Chile's border with Bolivia in terms of its concentration of lithium in brine. Codelco, the world's biggest copper producer...