The new complex of laboratories, pilot plants, prospecting wells and pools covering 27 sq.km of the southeastern part of the plain, situated 140 km from the town of Uyuni, represents the dreams of more than a generation of politicians - a national lithium industry.
"With the exploitation of lithium in a 400 sq km area, we'll have enough to maintain ourselves for a century", Bolivia's president Evo Morales boasted recently of the rare metal used in smart phone and electric car batteries. The government estimates that Bolivia stores around 70% of the world's lithium reserves, some 100 million metric tonnes. The US Geological Survey puts the figure at a more modest 9 million tonnes.
But the nascent industry, which Chinese and German technology companies will help develop, involves more unknowns than knowns - especially with regards to the environmental impacts of extracting the lithium element from its carbon compound.
Morales announced that his government will invest $995 million in the development of the lithium industry between now and 2019. It is the second largest state investment after the $1 billion funnelled into the gas sector six years ago.
Morales signed a contract with German company K-UTEC Ag Salt Techonologies to design a lithium carbonate pilot plant on 16th August and China's Linyi Dake Trade has already constructed an ion lithium battery pilot plant on the site, which was inaugurated in March 2014. On 13th July last year, another Chinese company, CAMC Engineering, signed a contract to build a potassium salt industrial plant.
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N.B. It is important to remember what happened recently in Brazil, as posted in this blog (http://ecologyintofocus.blogspot.com.br/search?q=VALE):
