Mexico and Bolivia join forces to plan push into global lithium market

Mexico and Bolivia will research the development of a joint strategy to help both countries integrate into the global lithium market, including the highest value-added links within the electric battery supply chain.

The project is dubbed "Sustainable use of lithium: Strengthening competitiveness and energy development" and was approved in September during the IX Meeting of the Joint Commission for Technical and Scientific Cooperation Mexico-Bolivia, led by both countries' foreign ministries.

It is scheduled to begin in November and has a duration of 18 months.

Rigoberto García, leader of the project and researcher at Colegio de la Frontera Norte (Colef) in Sonora state, Mexico, said the research will be carried out in coordination with Bolivia's state lithium company YLB and Mexican state lithium company LitioMx.

One objective is to provide the leaders of both companies with a comprehensive diagnosis of the challenges and opportunities for the sustainable extraction of lithium in both countries.

“It will be a comparative study. In other words, we're going to develop a roadmap for Mexico and a roadmap for Bolivia to make a proposal for both countries to effectively integrate into the global lithium market,” García told BNamericas, adding that to date not a single ton of lithium has been extracted or sold in Mexico or Bolivia.

“Both countries are considering lithium as an opportunity or a lever for development, but the truth is that we haven't yet integrated into the global market and many other countries are already beating us… especially in South America, with Chile and Argentina,” he said.

Chilean lithium has lost appeal because the national strategy to increase production is moving slowly and the global market is changing.

García worries that something similar will happen in Mexico. Because although lithium is currently essential, especially for electromobility, it is not guaranteed that it will be so highly desirable in the future, since technological innovations that require other minerals, such as sodium, are constantly being developed.

The academic estimates that Mexico could need at least 10 years before starting to extract lithium.

“I think we have to move in a much more efficient, much more proactive way to be able to enter this global market that even the federal government with this new administration has taken as a relevant issue, as a very important issue, especially so that electromobility can be developed in Mexico,” he added.

García explained that the research on the use of lithium will not include geological aspects, but is about comparison and exchange of know-how and the experiences both countries made to date, including regulatory frameworks, environmental aspects and the participation of both the State and the private sector, in addition to technological capabilities.

"In our case, it's a very limited project in that sense because it's a seed project," he said, adding that large-scale research will likely be required later on.

LitioMx or Pemex Litio?

García said that the project was planned to start officially in October, but due to the change of administration in Mexico on October 1, it had to be delayed to obtain clarity regarding the new authorities.

He expects LitioMx to become a unit of Mexico's federal oil company Pemex. “That is to say, what I understand is that [LitioMx] continues to operate, but it will belong to Pemex.”

Pemex CEO Víctor Rodríguez reported in a call with investors on Tuesday that the company is analyzing the creation of two subsidiaries, Pemex Litio, focused on lithium, and sustainable energy unit Pemex Energía Verde, although initially the strategy regarding lithium and other key materials would be worked on internally, together with LitioMx.

"We're going to work in accordance with the instructions of [President Claudia Sheinbaum] in a partnership with LitioMx. We're going to work hand in hand with them and also with the economy ministry through Mexico's geological service," Rodríguez was quoted as saying by newspaper Reforma.