“We have just received our first formal offer from a South Korean company, requiring a total demand of 26,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate by 2027,” said Sergio Huasebe, Marketing Manager of Bolivian Lithium Deposits (YLB).
According to the managing director, after the recent inauguration of the first industrial plant of the complex in Llipi, Colcha K municipality, Potosí, there are “many interested parties” in the product, especially companies from China, Russia, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey.
During the opening ceremony, the President of YLB reported that the production of this complex in the first phase will reach 30 percent of the planned annual production capacity and will reach 15,000 tons in 2025.
However, in the current year, the Plurinational State signed three agreements with Chinese companies and a Russian company worth two thousand 800 million dollars to build four more industrial factories of the complex with state-of-the-art direct lithium extraction (EDL) technology. ), which shortens product procurement times.
According to YLB, these industries will be located in the Potosí salt flats and in the Oruro department and are expected to produce around 100,000 tons of battery-grade lithium carbonate in 2025-2026.
On December 13, YLB and Russian company Uranium One Group signed another agreement that will see the construction of a semi-industrial lithium carbonate pilot plant with a capacity of 14,000 tons per year in three phases.
In the first step, a thousand tons per year will be synthesized, in the second step, production will be expanded to nine thousand tons by installing a semi-industrial module, and in the third step, another five thousand tons will be added with a second module of this type.
These developments are part of the government's industrialization strategy in this area and are among the fundamental measures to promote the national economy.
The industrial production and export of lithium carbonate offers great opportunities for Bolivia, as this compound is in high demand for the production of battery cathodes amid a global energy transition towards electromobility.
Although the main product that YLB works on is lithium carbonate, it also pays attention to the extraction of potassium chloride, a compound in high demand in the fertilizer market.
The production volume of this compound, which is important for agriculture, is currently 70,000 tons and is expected to reach 90,000 tons this year.
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