PUERTO IGUAZU (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th July, 2023) Bolivia will receive about $2.8 billion worth of investments for lithium production in the coming months from foreign companies, including Russia's Rosatom, Bolivian President Luis Arce told Sputnik.
"Bolivia will receive about $2.8 billion in coming months from three companies. And we also have our own Yacimientos de Litio Bolivianos, which was tasked with competing with foreign companies," Arce said.
The three companies Bolivia has agreements with are China Broadband Capital (CBC), China's Citic Group and a Rosatom mining company, Arce said.
"We will mine lithium for batteries and will trade batteries globally with the companies with which we have signed agreements. According to our estimates, Bolivia will export lithium batteries and profit on trade starting from 2025," the president said.
Bolivia will be sourcing lithium from three large saline lake reserves � Coipasa, Uyuni and Pastos Grandes; together, they contain the larger part of Bolivia's lithium reserves, recognized as the world's largest.
In line with the country's ambition to accelerate industrialization, Bolivia will expand its portfolio of exportable resources to include not only lithium but also gas, steel and zinc, Arce added.
Last week, Rosatom's international uranium mining holding, Uranium One Group, and Bolivia's state-owned lithium company, Yacimientos de Litio de Bolivia, signed a framework agreement on the construction of an industrial complex for the extraction and production of lithium carbonate in Bolivia's Potosi. Investments in the project will amount to about $600 million.
