Begin. Bolivia plans to produce at least 65,000 tons of lithium carbonate per year.
The first large-scale exploitation of salt lakes for lithium production began in Nevada (USA) in 1966. Since then, the world’s dominant extraction method for such sources has been “solar evaporation”: liquid brine is extracted by pumping systems and then stored in large shallow pools where its concentration increases as a result of exposure to solar radiation. increases. and precipitate various elements.
In Chile, both SQM and Albemarle have been using this type of technology for decades, in Argentina Orocobre-Toyota has been using it since 2016, and North American company Livent is supplying its “adsorption column” system that previously concentrated evaporation in the pool. Also in Bolivia, specialists from Yacimientos de Litio Bolivianos (YLB) developed their own evaporation technology, a highly complex process that requires extensive knowledge of the climatic conditions and the special chemistry of the salt pans, for which the public company produced and prepares 55,000 tons of potassium chloride in 2022 plans to open its first 15,000 ton/year lithium carbonate industrial plant in 2023, construction of which was halted in 2019 by the government of Jeanine Anez.
However, developing new evaporator projects to respond to the growing global demand driven by the electric battery industry will face some difficulties. Not only because the construction of a solar evaporation pond typically takes seven to ten years, but also because each production process takes approximately 18 months (this depends heavily on weather conditions and rarely varies from 30 to 30 years). Recovers between 40 percent. containing lithium). That’s why the major industrial powers vying for leadership in the energy transition are now driving technology development, even as the companies that pioneered producing lithium from brine are looking to expand their production to traditional solar vaporization techniques. Extraction of lithium (EDL) that promises to be cleaner and more efficient.
In the midst of its confrontation with the People’s Republic of China, the US is not only trying to guarantee its corporations control over the South American reserves (as the head of the Southern Command, General Laura Richardson, points out). According to a recent report for the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Energy Resources, “EdL’s technological advances as a mechanism to boost competition abroad prioritize the United States’ clear advantage in technological advances.” Dominance must also be maintained.
Contract
In Bolivia, Luis Arce’s government unveiled a strategic alliance for the development of EDL, which could greatly influence the geopolitics of the global lithium market and the energy transition. It signed an agreement with the Chinese conglomerate CBC, which consists of three major leaders in the energy transition: CATL, the world’s leading automakers (Honda, BMW, Volkswagen, Toyota, PSA, Volvo, Tesla), for Brump lithium battery manufacturers. CMOC, a world leader in lithium battery recycling and a major producer of energy minerals such as cobalt and niobium.
Details of the agreement with China CBC
Chinese consortium CBC intends to invest over $1,000 million in Bolivia to build two EDL industrial complexes in Oruro and Potosí. During the next six months it will undertake, at its own risk, the funding of preparatory engineering studies to determine both the feasibility of the project and production projections.
From there, YLB and CBC will define a set of service contracts required for the construction of two industrial complexes (consisting of two EDL plants with their respective fresh brine, raw water and industrial carbonates, lithium production facilities), operation and maintenance of the project and finally the sale of the finished product.
Inspired by the experience of the oil sector, the agreement signed on January 20 stipulates that future service contracts must in no case jeopardize the 100% state ownership of the production chain, as required by law 928 of 2017. In order for YLB to commercialize the product and for CBC to recoup its investment, one of the key factors for CBC to accept the terms of the Bolivian sovereignty model is to ensure lithium supply over a long period of time.
The other crucial factor is the possibility of developing and expanding a new EDL extraction technology using prestigious Bolivian brines amid China’s dispute with the US. Perhaps, therefore, the YLB’s greatest challenge is not to preserve and protect national sovereignty over public reserves, although the Potosí Civic Committee and its “Expert Advisor” headed by Juan Carlos Zuleta (temporary YLB controller during the government of Áñez) to protest against the 928 law. To put pressure on the government to revise the SOP and allow a partial privatization of the funded project.
EDL challenges for Bolivia
There are several advantages that EDL processes offer compared to the traditional solar evaporation method. According to a recent article by Dr. Ernesto Calvo, a senior researcher at Consett, Argentina, EDL techniques are much faster, can achieve efficiencies of 70 to 95 percent, and generate less waste. However, most EDL technologies have not yet made it beyond pilot scale and still have to solve significant problems such as low extraction speed.
according to dr Calvo, the only EDL techniques that have reached industrial scales worldwide are based on “adsorption columns”, a system used decades ago by Livent in Argentina from pre-concentrated brine by solar evaporation, but currently used by other companies from China, the USA and France have managed to improve the direct processing of fresh brine. Both the Chinese conglomerate’s CBCs and other proposals pending an agreement with YLB will be based on this mature selective adsorption technology.
After YLB delays, typical of any sovereign industrialization project, with systematic opposition from conservative sectors from the start, significantly disrupted in 2019, Bolivia no longer has any scope to launch new evaporator projects. whose construction would take at least another seven years. Amid new neocolonial threats from the US Southern Command over Latin America, agreement with the CBC for engineering studies and construction service contracts without jeopardizing public ownership of the resource could be the first step in a new alliance for a sovereign industrialization strategy.
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