• NOVEMBER 21, 2009
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Bolivia's Lithium-Powered Future

What the global battery boom means for the future of South America's poorest country.

BY JOSHUA KEATING | OCTOBER 21, 2009

Field of dreams: The global demand for lithium, the lightweight metal used to make high-powered batteries for cell phones, laptops, and hybrid cars, is expected to triple in the next 15 years. Fifty to 70 percent of the world’s supply of this critical mineral is contained in just one place -- Bolivia’s Uyuni salt flats, shown above.

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Joshua Keating is deputy Web editor at Foreign Policy.

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HIDE COMMENTS LOGIN OR REGISTER REPORT ABUSE

FREEDA2

8:10 PM ET

October 22, 2009

havent you heard

halliburton, with neo-con and zionist co, have started plannin its next target for its "freedom and democracy" bombs and missiles.

 

WIZCLIQUE

11:41 AM ET

October 29, 2009

Halliburton, zionist etc.

I am very happy to hear this! Good for all of us.
Good luck to them.

 

ABDOLKARIM

2:26 AM ET

October 24, 2009

This article is tosh

Lithium is the 30th most abundant element on earth. The largest deposit of lithium is in the oceans. Most of it is in asia.

The largest miner of lithium is Argentina and then Chile then China.

Bolivia doesnt even mine any lithium!

An electric vehicle needs only 1 kg of lithium.

And that lithium is recyclable easily.

This article is writen for leftist post-colonials and nationalist socialists so they will bash any lithium consumer as "imperialist" "colonialist" and other simplistic reductionist nonsense.

China is the largest consumer of lithium.

There is more lithium on earth than copper and tin combined.

Trillions of EV batteries can be built with just a fraction of lithium in known reserves.

Sorry leftists reductionists - we will NOT run out of lithium. Now go and get a life!

 

MONROY.M6

2:28 PM ET

October 25, 2009

Think Again

To say that Evo Morales is a Socialist is a stretch.

And to say that he is wary of foreign companies is utter nonsense. Foreign companies have fared much better with Morales's so-called "nationalization" than before.

Now that is an story worth researching.

 

MONROY.M6

6:26 PM ET

October 25, 2009

Think Again

By the way, French corporation Bolloré has recently signed a deal with the Bolivian Government.

Is it true that by virtue of this deal only Bolloré´s technology can be used in the exploitation of lithium in Uyuni and that other companies that wish to develop the salt lands need to get a license from Bolloré?

Again, a story worth researching...

 

DBRITT

12:03 PM ET

October 26, 2009

where does the energy come from?

"Lithium may very well be the secret to reducing the world’s disastrous dependence on oil"

Batteries store energy, they don't make it. This statement shamelessly overstates their utility to promote this article. I know it isn't a journalist's job to stay up with the technical aspects of energy production, but claiming that something is "the secret" to this problem is quite foolish. Perhaps someone with financial interest in lithium batteries suggested it to the author. In that case it not only falsely promotes the author's agenda but the company's as well.

 

JERRYD

8:01 PM ET

October 26, 2009

bolivia lithium

The article is badly researched as there is no shortage of lithium. The only reason there are few sources of it is there has been little demand for it.

We have a lifetime supply here in the US.

So Bolivia needs to get off their high horse to exploit this or the world will pass them by..

 

MWRICENY

8:55 PM ET

October 26, 2009

Lithium Deposits

I maintain a blog, "Ranking America" that provides global rankings in lots of categories, including lithium reserves: http://rankingamerica.wordpress.com/2009/02/02/the-us-ranks-7th-in-lithium-reserves/

 

RAMBLINGMAN

12:43 PM ET

October 29, 2009

pardon the interruption

Off topic I realize, but in the photo essay in picture 7 of the Agua Brava hotsprings, is that a cruise missile? Looks a lot like a Tomahawk...
Just curious.

 

PANTHERCAT

12:08 AM ET

October 30, 2009

What timing

After examining it under high magnification I'd call it a missile, but since the image is blurred and it can't be positively identified, I couldn't call it a Tomahawk. I don't know if the Russians have a similar design, but since they have copied a good many of our designs, it could be one of theirs, that is if Hugo Chavez acquired some. Unless the image was a fake just to see if anybody was watching. Was there an international military exercise in South America?

I know a professional photographer who was hired to photograph children whose mothers want entered in pageants. He has to remove the zits from the imagery and some of those kids are living zit fields, so I tend to question the integrity of a lot of imagery these daze.

 
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