Bolivia to pick new junior partner on lithium in coming weeks - official

[Judi Lynn]

8TH OCTOBER 2018
BY: REUTERS

LA PAZ – Bolivia will choose a new junior partner in the coming weeks to help industrialise its lithium deposits from among seven companies that submitted proposals, including the German firm ACI Systems, according to a government official.

The other offers to work with Bolivia to tap two lithium-rich salt flats – Coipasa and Pastos Grandes – were submitted by Chinese companies and two Russian firms, Luis Alberto Echazu, Deputy Minister of High Energy Technologies, told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.

"The evaluation will take at least two to three weeks, maybe a bit more," Echazu said, adding that the decision could be made at the end of this month or in early November.

Bolivia is believed to have one of the largest lithium reserves in the world, but has yet to produce the metal on a large scale. President Evo Morales has sought to keep the metal, used in the production of batteries for electric cars and laptops, from being exported merely as raw material.

More:
http://www.miningweekly.com/article/bolivia-to-pick-new-junior-partner-on-lithium-in-coming-weeks-official-2018-10-08

[GatoGordo]

1. If Evo holds to form, nothing will become of this

Morales (for all of his good intentions initially) has G2 operatives whispering in his ear, and as a result, most of the private companies "nationalized" under the guise of Socialism have become the personal pocketbooks of the enchufados in Morales government, or "the connected", and are failing miserably. Vast projects have been started with "junior partners" that have turned into money pits, or at worst, "ghost businesses" when all of the profits have been siphoned off and the projects junior partners getting nothing for their investments.

I think its great that Morales doesn't want to let the basic raw materials just get exported... there is far more lucrative business in the finished product. The problem is, nobody trusts the Bolivarian Socialists in Venezuela and Bolivia any longer, and before any deal gets signed, there is some sort of collateral that Morales is going to have to offer the Chinese or Russians. Both have gotten burned BIG in Venezuela and to a lesser extent, Bolivia.

Morales other problem is access to ports. He has tariff free access to Arica in Chile, but he refuses to pay the unionized rail workers and longshoreman the wages they have bargained, and they won't load or transport Bolivian products unless they get paid their negotiated rates. Even if he wanted to export lithium, he refuses to pay the cost of getting it to port.