Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
succession of owners. During long periods foreign companies were in charge, and
during these periods much of the wealth left the country; and during alternating
periods when the mines were nationalized, inefficiency and corruption prevented
the local population from receiving much of the wealth generated by the industry.
Potosi is now a sad and dilapidated place as all its fine colonial buildings fall into
disrepair.
In 2005, Evo Morales was elected the first indigenous president of the country
and he immediately took steps to nationalize the oil, gas and mining industry. He
has launched an active campaign to renegotiate contracts with the foreign buyers of
these natural resources that guarantee that a far greater proportion of the wealth
remains in the country.
Several attempts had been made in the past to develop the world's largest lithium
deposits, which are found in the Salar de Uyni saltpans in central Bolivia, but each
has failed for various political and economic reasons. at the time we wrote this topic
negotiations were underway to raise the funds needed to develop the deposits and
thus to help meet the expected demand for Li batteries, but progress has been slow.
Bolivia, a very poor country, does not have the millions of dollars needed to start
the operation and foreign sources are reluctant to invest in a country where the
political climate, from their point of view, is so uncertain. On one hand the
government has said that they will oppose any future program in which cheap
Bolivian resources are used to build expensive cars in rich countries; on the other
hand the governments of the latter countries do not wish to see Bolivia set up a
stranglehold on a energy product that in some ways would be comparable to that of
the Middle East oil producers.
Another factor is the composition of the material that is mined. Although the
Salar de Uyni deposit contains the greatest tonnage of Li, the ore has a relatively
high Mg/Li ratio. Mg is not recovered and has to be deposed of as a waste product.
On the other hand the saltpans contain large amounts of potassium salts, which are
used as fertiliser, and sodium salts, which could be used in industry, if it could be
transported to the places were it would be consumed. at its location high in the
sparsely populated Andes,
the Salar de Uyni deposits are far from potential
consumers.
Environmental issues compound the problem. The lakes of the altiplano consti-
tute a unique ecological system that hosts unique fauna, including large flocks of
particularly pink flamingos. The extent to which mining would disrupt these
systems is unknown but is likely to be substantial, thus adding an additional reason
for the Bolivian government to resist large-scale industrialization of the region. The
growing tourism industry in the region also opposes any move to mine the deposits.
Meanwhile, as the situation in Bolivia remains unresolved, Chile and Argentina,
which both have governments that are far more open to mining, have developed
their segments of the altiplano deposits. In 2010, Chile produced 60% of the world's
lithium from its Salar de Atacama deposits in the north of the country. The
Greenbushes spodumene deposit in Australia is another important producer and
some 70 projects are currently underway to search for or develop deposits in other
parts of the world. Major brine resources probably exist in Tibet and Afghanistan
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