The strategic company is working on the new format of cylindrical lithium batteries of technologies 18650 and 21700, said the head of the division assigned to the hydrocarbon and energy portfolio.
According to the engineer by trade, these ventures use cathode materials that are “used to manufacture battery packs for laptops/notebooks, electric bicycles, photovoltaic systems and electric vehicles”.
Arnez visited the pilot battery factory in the town of La Palca in the Potosí department this Thursday along with the executive president of the state body, Carlos Ramos, the National Executive Committee of the Bolivian Workers’ Center and the Departmental Workers’ Center.
Ramos reported in mid-April that Bolivian public and private companies such as Quantum Motors, Movi and Qipus are using the batteries manufactured by this company with good results and that the company now has a wide range of energy storage elements and the capacity to develop them. .
According to him, sales of lithium carbonate, which is being produced on a pilot scale in Uyuni, in the Potosí department, brought in nearly $19 million in the first quarter of this year, and Bolivia is working on the industrialization of this sector.
Speaking to TV channel ATB, he explained that the amount sold came from a plant operating under pilot conditions.
However, he expressed optimism that in the future the highland country will have the Lithium Carbonate Industrial Plant in Uyuni, construction of which is 75 percent complete and expected to be operational before 2023.
He reported that the production capacity of this factory will be 15,000 tons per year, a figure they want to reach in the shortest possible time due to the good price of the mineral, which he described as “very valuable”.
Ramos said that the vision of President Luis Arce’s government is to industrialize lithium in the country, bearing in mind that the Plurinational State has the largest reserves of this metal in the world.
He emphasized that the quantification of lithium is focused on Uyuni, but recalled that Bolivia has 16 salt flats, among which he mentioned those of Coipasa and Pastos Grandes in Oruro and Potosí, respectively, areas that have not yet been explored and that will be need to be quantified.
According to the company, Bolivia is currently on the verge of industrializing lithium with the commissioning of pilot and industrial scale potassium chloride (agro-fertiliser), lithium carbonate and battery plants in the Uyuni Salt Flats.
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