Bolivia to call new bid round for lithium project

Bolivia's government plans to organize a new bidding process for its US$900mn lithium project after no companies qualified for a May 10 bid round, a senior official said.

President Evo Morales has been trying for the past decade to line up investors for state mining company Comibol's 10,000km2 Salar de Uyuni lithium carbonate project as part of a bid to industrialize the Andean country's commodities-dependent economy.

"We received 26 proposals for the lithium carbonate plant, and the preliminary report is unfavorable," Bolivian state news agency ABI cited energy minister Rafael Alarcón as saying. "There is no compliance with the conditions established in the bidding rules. We'll look at a way to jumpstart the lithium issue."

At least 26 companies from countries including China, South Korea, Russia, Germany, Spain and Finland were interested in bidding for the construction contract, according to Comibol's Recursos Evaporíticos unit. Germany's K-Utec Technology is scheduled to present the plant's final design this quarter, according to ABI.

Bolivia has been trying to build the lithium project for decades, but to date has installed only a pilot plant. The project is designed to produce 50,000t/y of lithium, in addition to potassium chloride and magnesium chloride.