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Lithium Supply from Bolivia

A bigger problem is the extremely high concentration of magnesium—about 20 times as much as in Argentina, and three times as much as in Chile. Current technology requires miners to get rid of magnesium salts by using lime, but that adds to the cost of extraction. Bolivia’s magnesium concentrations are about double the maximum acceptable for cost-competitive extraction, with no easy fix in sight. Bolivia’s poor infrastructure compared to its neighbors also makes operations even more expensive.“Bolivia has been a no-go zone for a long time from a lithium investor perspective,” Berry said.

Once lithium prices recover to a more natural level from today’s depressed prices, producers like those in Australia that get lithium from old-fashioned hard-rock mining will be much more competitive even than they are today. “Hard rock generates good returns, so investors don’t need to go into Bolivia,” he said.