Bolivia opens a research center to industrialize its lithium

The government of Bolivia launched this Thursday in the southwest of the country a research center to develop technology that allows it to industrialize its lithium.

The Research Center in Science and Technology of Evaporite Materials and Resources was inaugurated by President Luis Arce, the Bolivian Minister of Hydrocarbons and Energy, Franklin Molina, and the head of the state company Bolivian Lithium Deposits (YLB), Carlos Ramos.

The infrastructure was built in the municipality of Yocalla, in the Andean region of Potosí, in an area of ​​about 4,000 square meters and with an investment equivalent to about 14.3 million dollars, according to information from the Ministry of Hydrocarbons and Energy.

The inauguration is something “historical and strategic” within the government’s plans to industrialize natural resources, Arce pointed out in his speech.

“The first thing we are going to do is develop Bolivian science and technology for the exploitation and industrialization of our lithium that benefits ourselves,” he said.

This center seeks to increase the production capacity of the pilot plant of cathode materials for lithium batteries, and those of “cathodes, hydroxide, potassium chloride and other raw materials that are already being produced in the country,” he explained by his part Molina.

There it will generate “not only science and technology, but also capabilities and opportunities that will have an impact on more generation of jobs and better qualified technical personnel in the future,” for which agreements will be signed with Bolivian universities, said the minister.

Direct extraction

Molina recalled that last April an international call was launched for interested companies to test their technology for direct extraction of lithium (EDL) with brines from Bolivian salt flats in Bolivia.

Twenty companies appeared for the call, of which eight were selected to carry out “pilot tests”, obtain information on the characteristics of the salt flats and thus optimize the industrialization of Bolivian lithium, he said.

The companies chosen are CATL BRUNP & CMOC, Fusion Enertech, EnergyX, Tecpetrol, Lilac Solutions, Citic Guoan / CRIG, TBEA Group and Uranium One Group, from the United States, China, Russia and Argentina.

Arce indicated that the “first challenge” of the center inaugurated this day is to contribute in the evaluation of these firms to choose the one that provides “the best results and opportunities” to industrialize lithium.

Bolivia has reserves of 21 million tons of lithium, some of the largest in the world, most of it in the Salar de Uyuni in Potosí, and to a lesser extent in the deposits of Pastos Grandes, also Potosí, and Coipasa, shared between the Bolivian department of Oruro and Chile.

Lithium was in the spotlight after the departure of Evo Morales from the Presidency in November 2019, as the former president has assured several times that he was forced to resign due to an alleged coup against him promoted by interests such as those of the United States. about this Bolivian resource.

A complaint that has been denied by the aforementioned parties and by the authorities of the transitional government of former president Jeanine Áñez, which limited itself to maintaining the projects started by Morales and did not make decisions about possible alliances with foreign investors.