Bolivia’s first zinc refinery to be ready in 2024

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Bolivia‘s first zinc refinery will be installed in Oruro with an investment of US$350 million and will be completed in 2024, announced the Minister of Mining and Metallurgy, Ramiro Villavicencio.

The project “is already in the financing management stage with the Government of the People’s Republic of China”, said the minister during the 2021 Final Public Accountability Hearing of the sector.

As Bolivia is the second-main zinc exporter in the region, the government is also planning the installation of a second zinc refinery in Potosí.

According to the Jubileo Foundation, there have been several attempts to install a refinery in Bolivia. In 1975, at the request of the Bolivian government, the Japanese Cooperation Agency (JICA) presented a project for the installation of a zinc refinery, with a monthly production capacity of 3,000 tons of electrolytic zinc in its first stage, which would later be extended to 6,000 tons in the second stage. The investment amount was estimated at US$43 million, but political reasons frustrated its realization.

Since 2010, there have been three tenders for the development of these projects. The last one was in 2015 when the Chinese company Henan Yuguang International Economic & Technical Cooperation Corp was awarded the refineries. However, the bidding was again declared deserted because financial backing was not secured.

During today’s public rendering of accounts, it was reported that compared to 2020, the year in which the pandemic began, mining production increased by 93%, to US$6.3 million; exports by 91%, to US$5.9 million; and royalties by 78%, to US$231 million.

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