Bolivia BlogIn the last year or so there has been many news reports on the potential for Bolivia to profit from its vast lithium carbonate reserves (search google for Bolivia + lithium and you will find hundreds of articles). Lithium has been touted as the “new oil” as it is only available in limited amounts in certain parts of the world and is a vital component in a number of popular products used today and also for products of the future. Mobile phones, PDAs and laptops all use batteries made with lithium and, perhaps the most crucial factor for the future, the car industry is moving towards a greener future with electric cars that use lithium or lithium hybrid batteries. This will increase demand immensely and with Bolivia having around 50% (5.4 million tones) of the worlds Lithium deposits it could offer the poorest nation in South America a chance to increases its revenues dramatically. The deposits are located in the Salt flats of Uyuni which is a principle tourist attraction in the country.
At the moment Bolivia doesn’t process its lithium deposits and the current leftist government of Evo Morales is keen to maintain control of this resource and not sell the rights to foreign companies who have historically exploited the national resources of Bolivia and the country has not benefited from them.
The government has announced today it is going to invest 300-400 million US$ to build a lithium processing plant which should produce around 30,000 tonnes of lithium per year which would account for around 30% of the current world supply. The plant will be “built by the (Bolivian) state, by itself, without partners” said Freddy Beltran, the Bolivian governments Director of Mining.
If the government can build and run a successful processing plant then it will be a great boost for the economy but it is not without challenges. Firstly they country does not have the expertise to build such a plant so it will have to work with foreign assistance to some decree to get the project started.Some countries / companies have offered assistence and alot will depend on how this is managed. Also, some exerts have said, there are a number of technical issues regarding the extraction of the mineral such as the high brine content of the water in the area and the seasonal flooding that occurs in the area hindering the process. Hopefully though the challanges and can be overcome and the future of Bolivia will be brighter thanks to its natural resources and a government that controls it for the benefit of the country and not to line its own pockets.
