What gold meant to earlier eras, and petrolum to previous century, lithium may eclipse in the coming years. As demand soars for powerful batteries, Bolivia dreams of strinking it rich by tapping it’s huge lithium deposit. But will it’s people benefit ?
In the Salar de Uyuni, a dried up salt lake, located on the Bolivian altiplano at 3.700 meters altitude, the high energy intensity of the lithium and its light weight make it one of the most valuable and sought after metals in new advanced technologies.
Lithium is used in the manufacturing of batteries for hybrid cars. This metal, converted into lithium carbonate is found in batteries for cameras, but also for computers and, increasingly, for mobile phones. Each smartphone contains 2 to 3 grams of lithium; an electric vehicle, up to 10,000 times more … According to estimates, there will be between 125 and 220 million “clean” cars in the world in 2030, against 4 million today. A boom that generates a frantic race. The implications of such an energy supply and their potential for economic growth for the country are therefore of paramount importance. Here, nature plays surrealism: some 100,000 tourists come every year to admire this wonder born of the drying up of a prehistoric lake.
However, the Bolivian government faces the political challenge of developing its capacities to effectively manage a complex new industry, as well as its future relations with multinational partners. In addition to the lack of appropriate expertise for the extraction and industrialization channel of the metal, Bolivia faces a series of technical challenges: the lithium deposits are unusually salty and wet, flooded by seasonal rains and mixed with magnesium, which complicates the extraction process.
