SANTIAGO, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Chilean development agency Corfo said on Wednesday that it had struck a deal with lithium company SQM SQMa.SN , putting an end to a long-running dispute over royalties in Chile's Salar de Atacama, home to one of the world's richest lithium deposits.
SQM and Corfo had been embroiled in a bitter, high-stakes arbitration over royalties since May 2014. Chilean authorities had accused SQM of underpaying royalties and violating environmental regulations at lithium deposits leased from the government.