Eight companies compete to be Bolivia’s partners in lithium industry

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Vice Minister of High Technologies Alvaro Arnez announced Wednesday that the group of 8 finalists in the selection process of Bolivia’s strategic partner for lithium extraction comprise technology firms from the United States, China, Russia and Argentina, among them Lilac Solutions, Catl Brunp & Cmoc and Tecpetrol.

Since early 2021, Bolivia has been in the process of selecting a foreign partner to develop a “direct lithium extraction project” as the basis of an industrialization program for this ultra-light metal, which is increasingly in demand in the manufacture of high-performance batteries.

State-owned company Yacimientos del Litio Bolivianos (YLB), which will be the local operator of the “direct extraction” project, has recently launched a potassium chloride plant and is building another lithium carbonate plant in the salt flats of Uyuni, Coipasa and Pastos Grandes.

In Uyuni alone, the largest of these salt flats, YLB claims to have proven the existence of a reserve of 21 million tons of lithium, one of the world’s largest.

Arnez said that in selecting Bolivia’s strategic partner for the lithium industry, the government will consider technological advantages, costs and environmental criteria.

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