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Could Bolivia, one of the poorest countries in the world,
become the richest thanks to lithium?
We could be the richest country in the world
if we focus and if we do things right.
We are in the "Salar de Uyuni," which is 3,650 meters above sea level.
We are on top of about 120 meters of salt density.
The depth where the brines are --
that is, where the lithium is extracted -- is variable.
In this case, there are simply 15 centimeters. Sometimes, there could be a little more.
And there is the principal well where the lithium is being extracted on an experimental basis.
Underneath this huge salt desert of 12,000 square kilometers
are the biggest lithium reserves in the world
that at least for the car industry, is currently considered to be the energy of the future.
Even though there aren't precise figures,
the Bolivian government says there are approximately
5 billion tons of lithium in the Salar de Uyuni.
In bulk numbers, I would say we have a lot more lithium than that.
And even if these are rough figures,
there is talk about billions of dollars in income
because a lithium ton -- which cost $3,000 three years ago --
today costs $7,000, and is increasing.
According to my estimates, we are talking about $515 billion at 1998 prices.
That quantity is simply outrageous for a country whose annual national budget
was set at $14 billion,
thanks to high oil prices that only lasted a short time.
Less than 10 years ago, it became known that Bolivia had
the second-largest gas reserves in the region, after Venezuela.
But the prosperity didn't last long, nor was there a change in the poverty level.
With declining oil prices,
the world's focus turns to the lithium reserves of the Salar de Uyuni as the new energy reserve.
Well, I am not yet informed enough about lithium.
Well, no, we are not well informed. We are just learning.
In Uyuni, poverty is as prevalent as in the rest of the country, where six of every 10 inhabitants are poor.
That's why the local people don't have a good idea about what lithium is,
or about the enormous interest of the car industry that finds, in the Salar de Uyuni,
the future of electric cars, which will run on lithium batteries.
People simply want is a job.
It will be nice to have a good job, then, a permanent job. That's what we hope.
But the Bolivian government is cautious,
because the industrial plant of it's pilot project hasn't started working yet.
It will begin next year, producing 60 tons of lithium per month.
A lithium plant won't get us out of poverty, and it will not create thousands of jobs.
It will generate a moderate amount of income,
although $120 million is not a moderate amount considering the size of our country.
But not to solve all of our problems.
That's why the mining minister says that one cannot talk yet about billions of tons of lithium.
But he can talk about the conditions the government has set for foreign companies interested in lithium exploitation.
There is no possibility of giving the companies exploitation areas.
Exploitation will be done by the Bolivian state.
The companies will come to industrialize lithium, not to take out the raw material.
Secondly, the understanding with companies establishes that Bolivia gets a majority share.
Thirdly, this is a long-term project that sets up a strategy of industrialization until we roll out the batteries or even the cars.
Then, why have such companies as Sumitomo, Mitsubishi, or the French company Bolloré visited President Evo Morales?
We are mainly working on a scientific commission.
We are researching three different processes, and even a fourth one.
For the international companies, the lithium carbonate was the goal.
For us, that is the first step.
If they want to be our partners, they have to invest in value-adding process.
That view is shared by the Regional Federation of the South Altiplano Peasants (FRUTCAS),
which promoted the exploitation of the Salar de Uyuni recalling a bad past experience.
In the 1990s, the North American company Lithium Corporation wanted to keep the majority and give back only scraps.
That's why the position of the natives is quite clear.
The Salar is ours. It belongs to the natives.
They are the people who inhabit the land of Lípez. There were our grandparents.
As the new state political constitution says, any exploitation must be discussed with the natives.
We are also supported by the latest United Nations declaration.
Are you going to allow the participation of international companies?
No. We are against transnational companies.
We don't want them to enter the Salar de Uyuni.
We want the lithium exploitation to be done completely by the state.
I know that the native communities near the Salar
believe that we have to make our own batteries, our own lithium carbonate with Bolivian technology.
My question is: Do we have the conditions to re-invent the wheel?
Those who say that don't know anything about lithium.
However, the engineer in charge of the drilling
seems to sum up a feeling shared by a large number of Bolivian citizens.
In Bolivia, we have the work force.
What we need is economic help.
But I, as a Bolivian, would not allow anybody to come and exploit my country.