Why a lithium industry in Bolivia is a long way off

Last month, Bolivian state lithium company YLB announced the start of negotiations with Chinese firms CBC and Citic Guoan Group on contracts for the installation of industrial plants with direct lithium extraction (DLE) technology in the Uyuni and Coipasa salt flats.

The announcement came amid secrecy surrounding the work carried out by the two companies to install pilot plants, agreed upon last year and which are the basis for the installation of the industrial plants, and amid political tensions, aggravated by the attempted coup on June 26.

BNamericas spoke to Gonzalo Mondaca, an adjunct researcher at respected lithium specialist NGO Cedib, about the reasons why industrial production in the DLE technology plants that Bolivia hopes to see installed will not come as fast as the Luis Arce government hopes.

BNamericas: How are the pilot plants of the two companies involved in the negotiations for the industrial plants performing?

Mondaca: No plant has been installed yet. Although the pilot project is on a smaller scale, the development of DLE technologies is complex and takes much longer than the Bolivian authorities have considered in their public comments.

BNamericas: If you add to that the opposition of several communities to the use of fresh water, which is scarce and vital, will the development of the lithium industry be quite complicated in the medium term?

Mondaca: Yes, that’s correct. Lithium exploitation projects in Bolivia will probably not even begin in the medium term because the hydrogeological research required to apply this direct extraction technology is much more complex than that required for pool evaporation technology.

In both cases they need to exploit brine so you need to know how much brine is available.

Bolivia has an estimate of resources but will necessarily have to come as close as possible to determining reserves, even if they are not certified.

Once the reserves data is available, which are economically and technically feasible to exploit, the design must start for the development of an industrial project.

There are two additional problems with direct lithium extraction: one of its characteristics is the possibility of exploiting brines much more quickly than with the evaporite method and mineral percentages greater than 80% can be recovered, but it must be taken into account that high speed also generates depleted brines, which are practically left without liquid.

Most direct extraction projects don’t include the possibility of exploiting other minerals that are also in the brine and this residual brine has to be put somewhere, that is, we have to think about how to develop the reinjection processes and investigate to what depth these depleted brines can be injected without diluting the virgin brines that are inside the salt flat.

It's also necessary to ensure that the reinjection process will not contaminate freshwater sources, and that is precisely the greatest fear of the communities, especially taking into account Bolivia's lack of experience in these matters.

BNamericas: What happened to the efforts in Europe to promote new pilot plants with DLE technology?

Mondaca: The government promoted the call for proposals launched in January in Europe but has not obtained prior agreements or conventions or exploitation intentions, but rather support for the training of human capital and support in research.

Initially, 38 companies were interested in the call, then 27 were selected and finally 21 were approved. The methodology is that they would receive brines from different salt flats to test whether the direct lithium extraction methods they work with manage to process them efficiently. With the results, in a second stage, the conditions would be analyzed to be able to exploit the salt flats that they identify as most attractive, from an economic point of view.

BNamericas: The fact that 38 companies have expressed interest suggests that there could be good possibilities for developing DLE technology in salt flats.

Mondaca: There is interest from companies in Bolivia. DLE technology is the best technical possibility for processing brines in the country, especially in the case of Uyuni.

Uyuni is the most studied salt flat and it is known that it has brines with many impurities. Evaporite technology is not recommended in this region because the salt flat is within the southern plateau, at a higher altitude [3,650m above sea level], which implies three months of humidity, rain, intense cloudiness, which makes evaporation not the most efficient method.

Some smaller salt flats that are planned to be exploited are at 4,000m.

Additionally, the altitude creates cold winds that also reduce the effectiveness of evaporation.

These environmental conditions were not considered 10-15 years ago when the evaporite process began.

We believe that the evaporite method will not work in Uyuni or in any other salt flat in Bolivia. Direct extraction is a good alternative and it’s not a single technology, there are several, in accordance with the proposals for materials with very advanced chemistry.

BNamericas: In summary, developing industrial plants with DLE technology in Bolivia will take a long time.

Mondaca: Yes, that's right. Lithium has long processes to consolidate. From the time the deposit is identified until industrial production is achieved, it can take between seven and 19 years. These are the times for lithium, which do not correspond at all with the political expectations in Bolivia.

If things go well, we would have to think of at least seven years. Technically, the piloting processes take between three to four years and the construction of the industrial facilities another three years, and to that are added other factors such as the accessibility of resources, whether brine or fresh water, and the need for energy.

Politically, Bolivia is already facing problems, even before the beginning of the electoral period, which usually halts things. [General elections will be held next year.]