Bolivia’s Lithium Prospects
Everyone knows that Bolivia’s 5.4Million MT of lithium content (US Geological Survey), Bolivia has the world’s largest reserves of lithium . Since May 2008 the Bolivian government has been construction a lithium carbonate purification plant to obtain around 4,800,000 Metric tons of Li Carbonate a year . As of October 2009 the progress of the lithium carbonate purification plant showed a delay of at least 6 months which implies that it will become fully operational sometime next year. Also, the government has Disclosed that the country of Bolivia is investing $.350Million to produce between 20k and 30k Metric tons of Lithium Carbonate beginning 2015.

The lithium projects in Bolivia face at least 3 particular types of challenges . First, at the political level, the government had made their minds up, and do not choose to, and will not listen to the outside world. According to the Project Director, the industrial plant will be solely owned by the state because:

(1) Bolivia has the largest lithium deposit and reserve in the world;

(2) that is the only way to ensure that the benefits will be reinvested in the division and in the country;

(3) Bolivia should guarantee the supply of Lithium Carbonate to the world on clear market conditions; and

(4) exploitation and industrialization of Li should be sustainable and integral. As plausible as they might seem, these conditions do not seem to conform the basis for a sensible system of development of the lithium resources in Bolivia. However, if the car revolution takes off, chances are the government will be forced to revise its decision to go on its own.

Second, at the physical level, the brine resources in Bolivia need to overcome at least the following hurdles:

(1) the low evaporation levels at the Salar de Uyuni ;

(2) their high Magnesium-Lithium ratio; and

(3) their lack of free access to the sea. As reported at the First International Forum on Science and Technology for the Industrialization of Lithium and other Evaporitic Resources held in La Paz in October 2009, the University of Potosi (with the assistance of the University of Freiberg from Germany) appears to have made important progress aimed at improving evaporation rates at Uyuni using dynamic cones of intensive evaporation. Similarly, both the government’s pilot project and the University of Potosi announced that they were able to separate Mg towards the end of the process taking recourse to different chemical procedures18. However, Bolivia’s lack of free access remains an important problem because it will most likely increase the cost of transportation of Li carbonate to the nearest maritime port while reducing its competitiveness.

Third, at the social level, there is a general feeling in the communities living nearby the Salar de Uyuni that exploitation and industrialization of lithium should help them overcome their situation of poverty . There is no strategy in place to deal this very serious and extremely important problem . Of course one should be rather cautious about the real possibility to generate a lot of jobs in the production of Li because this is known to be a capital intensive business.

Finally, in a series of two articles published in two major newspapers in La Paz, Bolivia, between September and October 2009, the author of this study has advanced a preliminary proposal for the industrialization of the Salar de Uyuni. To begin with, in order to develop the country’s lithium and other resources a real scientific-technological revolution should be implemented in Bolivia, but it’s expensive, and takes a very long time.. Years. The Bolivian government needs to tackle the challenge, but this does not imply to postpone almost indefinitely lithium exploitation. The Bolivian government shouldn’t spend the little money they have, especially “reinventing the wheel” they are going to develop their own lithium carbonate extraction technology but don’t have the knowledge or the extra money if something messes up.  They have hardly any knowledge and human resources encase something goes sideways . Given all the delays and technical problems facing the government’s pilot plant, this author wondered whether it would have been a much smarter idea to obtain a professional firm that specializes in the necessary knowledge and human resources to assist the government to develop and implement the pilot plant.

Apart from the scientific-technological advancement that the Bolivians should hold high during the next twenty years or so , the strategy should contemplate the quantification of the reserves of all evaporitic resources in the Salar de Uyuni, through the most forward-looking prospection methods, including 3-D satellite ones, sort of like the ones that they used in the hydrocarbon industry. In accordance with the results of this activity, the salar should be divided into different areas of exploitation in a grid. The government could then invite all interested specialized companies to submit exploitation proposals on Bolivia’s conditions based on service contracts similar to the ones the country has agreed upon with foreign private oil companies currently operating in Bolivia. Based on the results of the exploration process , the country could decide which areas are assigned to specialized international firms and which areas are reserved for future exploitation.

Within this framework, lithium carbonate delivery deals could be agreed upon with those companies so as to insure that Bolivia is in charge of its commercialization or use in subsequent industrialization processes. This approach should guarantee the quick launch of an industrial scale operation to produce mostly Lithium carbonate. It is imperative to act like this because this is the only way Bolivia can send the correct signals to the Li-Ion battery and Hybrid electric vehicle markets and take an important share in the lithium market. Finally, with some of the proceeds obtained from exports of Li carbonate and other derived chemical compounds, Bolivia could advance rapidly towards a more comprehensive process of industrialization of lithium to produce different classes of lithium batteries and electric cars in the country, through strategic joint ventures with the most competitive international firms in the world along Bolivia’s lithium supply chains.