Sun rises on Bolivia's lithium industry

摘要

WHEN IT WAS announced in May 2008 that the Bolivian government had approved a lithium (Li) pilot plant on the Salar de Uyuni, a flood of interest was inevitable considering this was the last great untapped Li salar in South America (see IM May '08, p.8). The message this also sent out was that Bolivia is willing to allow development of other smaller Li rich salars which cluster in the country's south-west. This now appears to be the case as Canadian group New World Resource Corp. has signed a letter of intent to mine Li from the smaller resource, the Pastos Grandes lithium-potash brine project, located Bolivia's southwest Sud Lipez province.