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LATIN AMERICA |
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Bolivia to Start Producing Lithium Car
Batteries in 2018
LA PAZ – Bolivia plans by 2018 to begin
producing lithium batteries for use in
electric cars, according to a plan outlined
on Wednesday by the Andean nation’s deputy
minister of Science and Technology.
Roger Carvajal told a press conference that
President Evo Morales’ government has
settled on a basic strategy for exploiting
the vast lithium deposits in the Uyuni Salt
Flats.
He discussed the plan on the eve of an
international forum in La Paz on the
industrialization of lithium.
The U.S. Geological Survey says that Uyuni,
a 4,000-square-mile expanse in southwestern
Bolivia some 12,000 feet above sea level,
holds roughly half of the world’s 11 million
metric tons of proven and probable lithium
reserves.
Morales will inaugurate the conference in La
Paz on Thursday before traveling to Uyuni to
inspect construction of a pilot plant to
produce lithium carbonate, the main
component of rechargeable batteries used in
laptop computers, cell phones, iPods and
digital cameras.
The plan detailed by Carvajal also calls for
Bolivia to begin producing lithium carbonate
on a commercial scale in 2013.
While Chile, Argentina and China already
produce lithium carbonate, their cumulative
output is insufficient to meet global demand
and Bolivia hopes to fill that gap.
Morales’ administration is demanding that
foreign companies vying for access to the
Uyuni deposits partner with the government
to produce electric-car batteries – for
which lithium, the lightest of all metals,
is a crucial component – and even build an
electric-car factory in the country.
Among the companies that have expressed
interest are France’s Bollore, Japan’s
Sumitomo and Mitsubishi and South Korea’s
Kores and LG.
Those firms have agreed to join Bolivian
professionals on a scientific advisory
committee that is studying Bolivia’s lithium
potential. EFE
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