In Bolivia, lithium, an untapped bounty, raises nationalist issues.


By SIMON ROMERO

UYUNI, Bolivia - In the rush to build the next generation of hybrid or electric cars, a sobering fact confronts both automakers and governments seeking to lower their reliance on foreign oil: almost half of the world’s lithium, the mineral needed to power the vehicles, is found here in Bolivia? a country that may not be willing to surrender it so easily.

Japanese and European companies are busily trying to strike deals to tap the resource, but a nationalist sentiment about the lithium is building quickly in the government of President Evo Morales, an ardent critic of the United States who has already nationalized Bolivia’s oil and natural gas industries.

Adding to the pressure, indigenous groups here in the remote salt desert where the mineral lies are pushing for a share in the eventual bounty.

“We know that Bolivia can become the Saudi Arabia of lithium,”said Francisco Quisbert, 64, the leader of Frutcas, a group of salt gatherers and quinoa farmers on the edge of Salar de Uyuni, the world’s largest salt flat.“We are poor, but we are not stupid peasants. The lithium may be Bolivia’s, but it is also our property.”

The new Constitution that Mr.Morales managed to pass last month bolstered such claims. One of its provisions could give Indians control over the natural resources in their territory.

None of this is dampening efforts by foreigners, including the Japanese conglomerates Mitsubishi and Sumitomo and a group led by a French industrialist, Vincent Bollore. In recent months all three have sent representatives to La Paz, the capital, to meet with Mr.Morales’s government about gaining access to the lithium, a critical component for the batteries that power cars and other electronics.

“There are salt lakes in Chile and Argentina, and a promising lithium deposit in Tibet, but the prize is clearly in Bolivia,”Oji Baba, an executive in Mitsubishi’s Base Metals Unit, said in an interview in La Paz.

Demand for lithium, long used in small amounts in mood-stabilizing drugs and thermonuclear weapons, has climbed as makers of batteries for electronic devices use the mineral. But the automotive industry holds the biggest untapped potential for lithium, analysts say. Since it weighs less than nickel, also used in batteries, it would allow electric cars to store more energy and travel longer distances.

With governments, including the Obama administration, seeking to increase fuel efficiency and reduce their dependence on imported oil, private companies are focusing their attention on this desolate corner of the Andes, where Quechua-speaking Indians subsist on the remains of an ancient inland sea by bartering the salt they carry out on llama caravans.

The United States Geological Survey says 4.9 million metric tons of lithium could potentially be extracted in Bolivia, compared with 2.7 million in Chile, 1 million in China and just 370,000 in the United States.

Amid such potential, foreigners seeking to tap Bolivia’s lithium reserves must navigate the policies of Mr.Morales, 49, who has clashed repeatedly with American, European and even South American investors.

Mr.Morales shocked neighboring Brazil, with whom he is on friendly terms, by nationalizing its natural gas projects here in 2006 and seeking a sharp rise in prices. He carried out his latest nationalization before the vote on the Constitution, sending soldiers to occupy the operations of British oil giant BP.

Comibol, the state agency that oversees mining projects, is investing about $6 million in a small plant near the village of Rio Grande on the edge of Salar de Uyuni. It hopes to begin Bolivia’s first industrial-scale effort to mine lithium from the white, moon-like landscape. Mr.Morales wants the plant finished by the end of this year.

Over a meal of llama stew and a Pepsi, Marcelo Castro, 48, the manager overseeing the project, explained that along with processing lithium, the plant had another objective.

“Of course, lithium is the mineral that will lead us to the post-petroleum era,”said Mr.Castro.“But in order to go down that road, we must raise the revolutionary consciousness of our people, starting on the floor of this very factory.”

Geologists and economists are fiercely debating whether the lithium reserves outside of Bolivia are enough to meet the climbing global demand. On the flat salt desert of Uyuni, such debate seems remote to those still laboring as their ancestors did. The lithium found under the surface of this desert seems even more remote for these 21st-century salt gatherers.

“I’ve heard of the lithium, but I only hope it creates work for us,”said Pedro Camata, 19, his face shielded from the unforgiving sun by a ski mask.“Without work out here, one is dead.”