Bolivia’s Plans for Commercialization of Vast Lithium Deposits
It’s been called the “Saudi Arabia of lithium”, and Bolivia‘s plans to commercialize their massive deposits of the increasingly popular metal are becoming clearer by the day.
According to Roger Carvajal, Bolivia’s Deputy Minister of Science and Technology, the country is planning to begin production of lithium carbonate on a commercial scale in 2013, with plans for the production of lithium batteries for electric cars by 2018.
Carvajal, who discussed the plan on the eve of an international forum in La Paz regarding the industrialization of lithium, said that the government of President Evo Morales has settled on a basic strategy for exploiting the vast lithium deposits in the Uyuni Salt Flats. A recent US Geological Survey reports that the area holds roughly half of the world’s 11 million tons of lithium reserves.
President Morales inaugurated the forum yesterday before travelling to Uyuni to inspect the construction of a pilot plant which will produce lithium carbonate, the main ingredient of rechargeable batteries used in laptops, cell phones, iPods and digital cameras. While Chile, Argentina and China already produce lithium carbonate, their cumulative output has been said to be insufficient to meet the ever-increasing global demand. Bolivia, one of the poorest countries in the Americas, hopes to fill that gap and capitalize on the rise of lithium for use in rechargeable batteries of every sort.
Category: Battery News
