SANTA CRUZ DE LA SIERRA (Sputnik) – The Bolivian government has asked Congress to fast-track approval of the lithium industrialization agreements signed with Russia and China as soon as possible so that their implementation can begin, Bolivian Deputy Energy Minister Alvaro Arnes said.
«We are asking for an accelerated and prioritized consideration by the National Assembly, so that [the agreements] can be approved by the entire Congress and investments can be attracted,» Arnes said in an interview with Bolivia TV.
On September 11, the Bolivian government signed a contract with Uranium One Group, a subsidiary of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom, to build a lithium carbonate plant for batteries with a capacity of 14,000 tonnes per year and an investment of $970 million. Two weeks later, an agreement was signed with China’s Hong Kong CBC to build two lithium carbonate plants with a comparable investment.
Bolivia has reserves of 23 million tonnes of lithium and the country is a member of the Lithium Triangle, where the world’s largest deposits of the metal are located, along with Argentina with its 19 million tonnes and Chile with 9 million tonnes.
