Interest in the market for biominerals-especially lithium and cobalt – which are essential for the battery and electric vehicle industry is growing, given the global focus on moving away from fossil fuels.
Geographically remote areas, from the Chilean Atacama Desert to the Katanga plains of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, have become among the most strategic; their lithium-and cobalt-rich soils are the back room of the great energy transformation race.
Therefore, these resources are the subject of all the ambitions pursued by the major world powers keen to preserve their industrial sovereignty, as well as the Giants of the mining and automotive sectors, as monitored by the specialized energy platform.
Moreover, if China is maintaining an accelerated pace of monopolizing resources and controlling refining operations, then Europe and the United States are trying to catch up.
For their part, countries possessing world reserves seek to take advantage of their deposits to develop their own industries.
Among these countries, Bolivia stands out with estimated lithium reserves of 23 million metric tons (or 25% of global reserves), the largest in the world, but it has not yet translated its potential into commercial-scale production.
French geographer and researcher Audrey serandor explained that Bolivian lithium extraction is still in its early stages, far from the other major producers in the region, Argentina and Chile, despite the exploitation project launched by former President Evo Morales in 2008.
Bolivia has the largest salt complex in the world “Salar do Uyuni”, located in the south-west of the country, at an altitude of more than 3650 meters above sea level, which has been dry for thousands of years.
10 thousand square meters of white earth, made up of thick crusts in which nothing grows: this is where Bolivia’s enormous lithium reserves are located, the quantity of which is still difficult to quantify.
