Bolivia and China sign agreement for pilot lithium extraction plant in Salar de Uyuni

Published at: 18/01/2024 09:34 AM

The Government of Bolivia and the Chinese consortium Catl, Brunp and Cmoc (CBC) signed an agreement today Wednesday for the development of a pilot plant for the direct extraction of lithium and the production of carbonate from this chemical element in the Salar de Uyuni, in the Bolivian department of Potosí (southwest).

The official event was held at the Casa Grande del Pueblo (headquarters of the Executive) in the city of La Paz, with the presence of the Bolivian president, Luis Arce, as well as the vice-president David Choquehuanca.

It was also attended by the executive president of the state-owned Bolivian Lithium Yards (YLB), Karla Calderón, as well as the representative of the Chinese CBC consortium, Qinghua Zhou, as well as representatives of the Chinese embassy in Bolivia, ministers and special guests.

Arce specified in his speech that the lithium extraction plant will have an investment of 90 million dollars and an initial production capacity of 2,500 tons of lithium carbonate per year.

“This is the second agreement that our company YLB has already signed with these companies, who have decided to come and bet on Bolivian lithium to continue the industrialization process,” he emphasized.

The Bolivian president said that the Chinese consortium is made up of three companies of “high technological level”, which are among the first in the lithium industry in the world.

“The lithium era is an era that we must seize. Unfortunately, in the past we did not print the necessary speed in this area, but the national government has made a clear decision that this issue of the industrialization of lithium is a central element in politics,” he said.

The president said that there is an interest of many international companies to establish themselves in the South American country to exploit lithium, but that the line of his administration is that they do so under the Bolivian business model.

For her part, the president of YLB explained that the agreement signed with the CBC consortium makes it feasible to build a pilot plant in the Uyuni salt flat with an initial production capacity of 2,500 tons per year of lithium carbonate and the projection of a second one of up to 25,000 tons per year.

The agreement is valid for two years, during which time the pilot plant will be installed in Uyuni and then an industrial plant will be planned close to the YLB Industrial Complex, in the Colcha K municipality of the department of Potosí, according to reports from YLB .

In June 2023, the Bolivian state company signed agreements with Citic Guoan Corporation, part of China's Citic Group, as well as the company Uranium One Group, owned by Russia's Rosatom Corporation.

These agreements committed an additional investment of 1.4 billion dollars for the construction of two plants with direct lithium extraction technology, in Pastos Grandes and in Uyuni .

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