Bolivia moves forward with lithium pilot projects and evaluates green bond financing

This week, Bolivia has progressed to the second phase of its international call for the development of pilot lithium projects across seven salt flats through the state-owned company Yacimientos de Litio Bolivianos (YLB), according to multiple local news sources.

The country's rich yet under-developed lithium resources initially attracted 38 global companies after the call on 26 January 2024. 25 companies have been vetted for their legal and technical compliance and are now moving forward to present their pilot project proposals. The pilots could then be turned into industrial-scale lithium plants.

Prior to the call, YLB has a notable agreement with the Chinese consortium CBC, comprising CATL, BRUNP, and CMOC, with an investment of US$90 million to build multiple lithium processing facilities.

Concurrently, Bolivia is exploring international financing strategies like green bonds. Earlier this month, Bloomberg reported that Bolivia was considering selling green bonds focusing on clean energy generation for up to US$1 billion dollars on Wall Street. This is an option that "requires thorough technical and financial analysis" to ensure such financing does add benefits to the Bolivian economy, said Karla Calderón, the president of YLB last Sunday.

The success of these initiatives depends on Bolivia's ability to navigate the technical, financial, and regulatory hurdles associated with lithium extraction and processing, especially when Bolivia has placed bets on Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE), a promising technique that skips the evaporation process, but still needs room to grow into large-scale commercial production.

Author: Hongqiu Su | Battery Metals Analyst Associate | London Office, Shanghai Metals Market

Email: lilysu@smm.cn