6 Min Read SANTIAGO (Reuters) - SQM , the world’s No. 2 lithium producer, cut a deal with Chile in 2018 that allowed it to ramp up output from the Atacama, a remote and fragile desert salt flat whose indigenous inhabitants fear may be jeopardized by mining. FILE PHOTO: An aerial view shows the brine pools and processing areas of the Soquimich (SQM) lithium mine on the Atacama salt flat, the world's second largest salt flat and the largest lithium deposit currently in production, with over a quarter of the world's known reserves, in the Atacama desert of northern Chile, January 10, 2013.REUTERS/Ivan Alvarado