Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile negotiate common price for lithium

In a diplomatic strategy of high impact in the lithium business worldwide, the Foreign Ministries of Argentina, Chile, and Bolivia are making progress in the elaboration of a joint document to establish “common parameters”, a price agreement, and a scheme of good practices for the production of the so-called “white gold” necessary for electric batteries.

According to El Cronista and sources of the Casa Rosada, Chancellor Santiago Cafiero is making progress in the negotiations with his counterparts from Bolivia, Rogelio Mayta, and Chile, Antonia Urrejola Noguera, in the drafting of a document to reach a tripartite agreement on the production and commercialization of lithium that arises from the triangle where more than 50% of the mineral is concentrated worldwide.

In the diplomatic negotiations that are being carried out between the three countries, a final agreement is contemplated to establish a common pricing policy.

It has to do with the current price disparity and the stiff competition from many countries to establish investments in Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia to co-opt the lithium that is so scarce in the world and which the automotive and cell phone industries require more and more insistently.

“It is time to agree and establish a common price agreement. We know that it will not be easy, but we must coordinate this basis of agreements,” explained a senior official of Alberto Fernández’s government who is closely following the negotiations with the Chilean administration of socialist Gabriel Boric and the Bolivian administration of Luis Arce.

The joint document being worked on by the Foreign Ministries also includes a sort of “Good Practices” manual for the sustainable development of lithium extraction while at the same time trying to establish clear rules of the game for a joint production process.

Argentine officials consulted on the subject acknowledged that these negotiations are not easy for several reasons. On the one hand, each country has mining policies with totally different lithium extraction and commercialization schemes.

In Bolivia, for example, the minerals are nationalized, and Arce’s socialist state governs both the extraction and production of lithium batteries.

In Chile, there is a scheme for greater insertion of private capital.

At the same time, in terms of price and production regulation, in Argentina, there is currently no constant practice of lithium battery production, and a policy is only now beginning to be deployed so that this industry does not become a purely extractive scheme.

There is also a federal scheme where the provinces are the ones that keep the power of natural resources and set the prices at the time of the extraction of the “white gold”. Therefore, it is still complicated to declare lithium as a “strategic mineral,” as President Alberto Fernández stated in New York.

Therefore, it will not be easy to agree on a common scheme for the three countries.

PROGRESS WITH BOLIVIA

In parallel to all this, two months ago in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, the first meeting of the Lithium Round Table between Argentina and Bolivia started to work.

This working table is based on the Technological Cooperation agreements signed by YPF Tecnología (YTEC) and Yacimiento de Litio Boliviano (YLB) and by CONEA and ABEN under the auspices of the Ministry of Science and Technology headed by Daniel Filmus, in the case of Argentina.

Cooperation actions were defined for the joint development of direct extraction methods and the development of lithium cells and batteries.

Thus, a new Hydrocarbons Working Group was created between YPFB and YPF in which technical cooperation actions were identified in various fields aimed at developing non-conventional hydrocarbons.

The production of cathode materials (LiFePO4 and LiNixMnyCozO2) from locally produced lithium salts was also agreed upon.

And there was also agreement for the elaboration of plans for developing a lithium-ion cells and batteries production plant with a capacity of at least 10 MWh/year.

And the development of the necessary know-how for the production of lithium-ion cells and batteries for different applications, including electromobility and stationary autonomous systems.

With information from Cronista