Bolivia Says Direct Lithium Extraction Will Speed ​​Up Industrialization

The government of Bolivia defended this Wednesday that the application of the technology of direct extraction of lithium (EDL) will allow it to accelerate the industrialization process of this resource and achieve the long-awaited production of derivatives on an industrial scale by 2025.

The Deputy Minister of High Energy Technologies, Álvaro Arnez, said that with the EDL the use of lithium can be “expedited” and add value to it through industrialization.

“This will allow us to make a qualitative leap and reach the end of 2024 or early 2025 with the industrial-scale production of lithium hydroxide and battery cathodes,” Arnez said, quoted in a press release from the Ministry of Hydrocarbons and Energies.

The vice minister recalled that last November memoranda of “understanding and confidentiality” were signed with eight companies to carry out pilot tests with EDL technologies in the brines of the Bolivian salt flats of Uyuni, Pastos Grandes and Coipasa.

These firms 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.

The companies “are not authorized to exploit the lithium from the country’s salt flats”, they were only given “certain amounts of brines to carry out their demonstrations and until April” present the results obtained, clarified the authority.

The civic organizations of Potosí, the region where the Salar de Uyuni is located, have expressed rejection of what they consider a supposed handover of the natural resources of that department to transnational companies.

Arnez remarked that it was decided to analyze the use of EDL technology to accelerate the industrialization of lithium, since it allows reducing the time for the separation of the element and other metals found in brines, as well as reducing expenses and also the environmental impact, according to the statement.

“Bolivian Lithium Reservoirs (YLB) will evaluate which is the best technology, that is, the one that costs us the least, gives us better performance in less time and is less polluting, and we will just move on to the next step, which is to acquire the patent for the or the companies that meet these indicators, “he said.

He also added that the country is not spending resources for these tests and that it is the companies that bear these costs.

Bolivia has reserves of 21 million tons of lithium, some of the largest in the world, most of it in the Uyuni salt flat in Potosí.

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, who limited herself to maintaining the projects started by Morales and did not make decisions about possible alliances with foreign investors.