Chinese enterprises won the right to exploit lithium resources in Bolivia

On January 20, the Bolivian Ministry of Oil, Gas, Energy and Mining announced that the Bolivian government finally chose to sign a framework agreement on lithium resource exploitation, refining, processing and marketing with the Chinese consortium CBC.

CBC is a joint venture led by China's power battery manufacturing giant Ningde Times. Ningde Times holds 66% of the shares, and the remaining 34% is jointly held by Luoyang Molybdenum and Guangdong Bangpu Recycling Technology Co., Ltd. CBC will invest more than US $1 billion in the first phase for the construction of roads, infrastructure, power supply, etc. Bolivia will allow CBC to develop lithium resources in salt lakes located in Uyuni and Aururo, and build two lithium extraction plants, so that the annual capacity of lithium carbonate can reach 50000 tons.

According to the data of the United States Geological Survey in 2022, at present, the world's proven lithium reserves are about 89 million tons, including 21 million tons in Bolivia, which is the country with the largest lithium resource reserves in the world. However, due to the lack of technology for direct extraction of lithium in the country, and the lack of infrastructure development such as roads, the local lithium mining project has stalled. At the signing ceremony, Bolivian President Ars é said in his speech that this was "a historic day for Bolivia and opened the industrialization era of lithium in Bolivia". The Bolivian government hopes to take this opportunity to have the ability to produce batteries and battery cathode materials, and start exporting lithium batteries produced by "using domestic raw materials" by the first quarter of 2025.

Previously, Ningde Times has invested in several companies including North American Lithium, Pilbara Minerals, Neo Lithium and Manono to obtain lithium resources in the Americas, Africa and Oceania. Industry insiders believe that this time Ningde Times won the mining right of lithium ore in Bolivia to consolidate the company's control of upstream resources.