The Chilean President Gabriel Boric announced Thursday in a national broadcast that companies will now have to partner with the Chilean state to produce lithium within the country. Past contracts will be honored but Boric expressed a desire to increase state participation in those contracts upon renewal. Chile’s move to quasi-nationalize the country’s lithium industry doesn’t come as a surprise considering South America’s past. Brazil’s extortionate tax rates come to mind as an outsized financial disincentive to force state inclusion in private projects within the oil sector. The Chilean Government’s move here is a little less heavy-handed, but it has still led to stocks in Chile-based lithium companies taking a tumble. Stocks in Albemarle fell nearly 9% while SQM’s US-listed…