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SOUTH AMERICA’S LITHIUM TRIANGLE TO PROFIT FROM E-CAR BOOM
- By The Financial District
- Jun 1, 2021
- 2 min read
The global automotive industry is in a state of upheaval - and Luis Arce has big plans for how this can benefit his country.
The president of Bolivia is hoping to ride the trend towards electromobility, and pull his country out of poverty along the way, with the help of giant lithium deposits.
The South American country wants to get into the lithium business in a big way: While the light metal has thus far been mined only for experimental purposes, plans are now in motion to begin mining the "white gold" on an industrial level, Martina Farmbauer, Denis Duettmann and Jan Petermann reported for Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa).
By 2030, Bolivia wants to be able to supply about 40 percent of global demand, says Arce. "We use our raw materials in sovereignty and for the benefit of Bolivians," he told a symposium in La Paz that attracted companies from around the world to show off the latest technology in lithium extraction.
Arce has every reason to believe his plans will succeed: According to market research company IHS Markit, sales of electric cars are expected to increase by 70 percent worldwide over the course of 2021.
However, part of this increase depends on the availability of powerful batteries, and thus lithium. The ions from the alkaline metal's salts are essential for transporting an electrical charge in most modern high-performance batteries.
According to IHS Markit, the demand for lithium could increase fivefold in the next 35 years.
Bolivia is not alone in recognizing this impending opportunity: The other countries in the "lithium triange" - Chile and Argentina - also want to play a part.
According to a survey conducted by the US Geological Survey, these three countries are home to 58 percent of the world's lithium reserves.
While Bolivia has the world's largest single lithium deposit at Salar de Uyuni, Chile has the largest proven reserves in the world and is second only to Australia in terms of production.
