Lithium boost Bolivian industry

Lithium can boost the Bolivian industry. Lithium batteries are used in anything ranging from cell phones to electric cars. Half of the world's reserves can be found in Bolivia.

Lithium batteries are used in everything from cell phones to electric cars. Half of the world's reserves can be found in Bolivia. and the country hopes to benefit from its popular resource. Annie Murphy reports 'Bolivia plans to make the best of that'.

In all likelihood you own something that runs on lithium batteries. It might be a cell phone or a laptop. The world's lightest material is also in demand for electric car batteries as automakers go green.

Salar de Uyuni in Southwestern Bolivia is best known as the planet's largest salt flat. Some 400,000 square miles, 10 billion tons of salt and thousands of tourists who come each year to wonder at this vast, otherworldly terrain. It's one enormous flat expanse of white nothingness blending into this baby blue sky. You see salt everywhere. About 25,000 tons of salt are extracted every year. But it's worth little.

And for generations, locals like Calixto Condori, who harvests salt here by hand, have been locked in poverty. This is extremely tough work, and salt doesn't have a high price like minerals. We just don't earn enough. But that could soon change. International investors and automakers like Japan's Mitsubishi corporation want a piece of it.

Bolivia's President Evo Morales is determined the lithium won't just enrich foreign interests or the nation's European-descended elite. He says ordinary Bolivians must benefit, and he wants the state to have a major stake in lithium extraction.

To start, they need to get to the lithium. Engineer Marcelo Castro is overseeing the construction of Bolivia's first and only lithium plant. Today, the site is full of workers bundled up against the cold wind and blinding sun. According to Castro, 98% of the workers are from nearby indigenous communities. But some analysts, like economist Juan Carlos Zuleta, say Bolivia just doesn't have the capital, expertise or infrastructure to become the world's leading lithium ore supplier.

There has to be some private investment. Not only because we are a poor country, and we don't have enough financial resources, but more importantly that we don't have the technology. It is an error to think that we Bolivians by ourselves are going to be able to go ahead with this important project. President Evo Morales is not ruling out foreign partners, but he's demanding a high price if they want some of the huge profits that lithium should bring. That's giving hope to Bolivians like salt harvester Calixto Condori. 

Published on 6 May 2010