MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bolivia reveals companies' interest in lithium reserves

Salar de Uyuni

Four foreign companies are interested in mining lithium in Salar de Uyuni, the world's largest known deposit of that metal, with the aim of producing automobile batteries, a Bolivian government official said this week.

Delegations from the Japanese firms Mitsubishi and Sumitomo and France's Bollore group are the ones that have "most formalized" their intention to mine lithium in Uyuni, according to national mining director, Freddy Beltran. Those three firms, Beltran said, have sent "high level" missions to Bolivia, although the South Korean multinational LG has announced that it will make a proposal to the country since it needs a sustained supply of lithium to fulfil its contracts to provide batteries for the US auto industry. Beltran said that other companies, whose names he did not provide, also have made contact with Bolivian authorities to explore the possibility of being part of the country's lithium production industry. Uyuni, where half the world's lithium reserves are located, is a salt flat located in the Potosi region in South-western Bolivia, an area of 12,000 square kilometres. Next week Bolivian President Evo Morales is scheduled to visit Russia and France, where Bollore intends to set up a meeting for the official presentation of the company's plans to manufacture automobile batteries using lithium.