shougangs peruvian mine, page-11

Forget about it - Lithium in Bolivia will be put on the agenda rather sooner than later but believe me there are investors already lined up in the background. If you know that George Soros has financed the career of Evo Morales the current Bolivian president and former coca union leader since 1994 and if you further know that Soros is 3% interested in Apex Mining that operates the San Cristobal silver mine in Bolivia and if you further know that Apex was forced to denie rumors about them intending to apply to Lithium licenses you know what's going on behind the scenes. On the other hand it's quite difficult to establish an initial exploration/mining operation in Bolivia because of the stated owned mining company COMIBOL that by law will have to hold a 50% share in every new mining project. Bolivia further introduced upfront mining taxes based on the revenue. THis combination makes it fairly unattractive to establish a new mining operation in Bolivia. Jindal from India recently did at the worlds largest iron ore deposit in El Mutun but has to accept that after a calm period the control of the JV with COMIBOL goes step by step over to COMIBOL. From what I heard (I recently talked to Bolivian country manager of Couer d' Alene mines) there is some Lithium recovery testingand this guy tld me that some years back (before Morales' presidency) a public foreign company was granted some Lithium properties but he didn't recall the name of the company - probably worth a quick desktop research.

Enjoy your weekend

Lenni