RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Argentina and Chile’s suspension of lithium supplies may have dire consequences for Russia, acknowledged Vladislav Demidov, deputy head of the Metallurgy Department of the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
“In conditions where the supply from Chile and Argentina has been suspended, the only possibility to receive (lithium) ore is from Bolivia,” he commented during a round table discussion in the Russian Senate.
The official recalled that “there is no lithium ore extraction in Russia. We receive the mineral in the form of lithium carbonate from Chile, Argentina, China, and Bolivia”.
“The problem with lithium is already gigantic since, in case of a refusal to supply ore from Bolivia, we would have nowhere to get it from,” he noted.
Demidov pointed out that Russia has lithium processing capacity in places such as the Siberian regions of Krasnoyarsk and Novosibirsk and the Tula region in the European part of the country.
Still, he warned that if lithium imports do not arrive, “a big problem may arise in meeting the needs of lithium-ion batteries.”
He also revealed that Russian companies are preparing to mine lithium ore, although they are still waiting for government licenses.
In recent years, Russia has shown interest in exploring Bolivian lithium deposits, which became evident in 2019 during the visit of Bolivian President Evo Morales to Moscow.
However, last October, Bolivia, having one of the world’s largest lithium reserves in the Uyuni, Potosi, and Coipasa (Oruro) salt flats, denied reaching an agreement with Russia to exploit these deposits.
On the other hand, once the Russian special military operation in Ukraine began, the Ukrainian authorities estimated 500,000 tons of untapped lithium reserves.
The international press denounced that Moscow would be interested in controlling these reserves, the bulk of which would be in the Donbas, the “liberation” of which is one of the main objectives of the current Russian military campaign.