RE: Can anyone read this article?18 Mar 2024 22:30
Article is from today:
Bolivia’s state lithium company YLB authorized 25 companies to continue in the process to develop pilot projects for production of the metal and other resources in seven salt flats.
In total, 38 companies had expressed interest in the process launched in January.
“Let it be clear that we’re working with the most legally serious companies. Twenty-five companies moved on to the second phase and in the coming days the information exchange agreements will be signed, which will be mainly technical,” YLB’s president Karla Calderón said in a television interview.
Calderón added that the companies were authorized after verifying compliance with administrative and legal requirements established in the call.
In the second stage, qualified companies must present their proposals and prove their technical and financial capacity to carry out the proposed pilot projects.
In the third phase, the YLB evaluation commission will analyze the proposals and issue reports on the companies’ suitability to sign agreements with the state firm. YLB plans to sign the agreements on August 6.
The objective of the pilots is to test technology for the subsequent development of industrial plants.
In January, YLB signed an agreement with Chinese consortium CBC – made up of CATL, BRUNP and CMOC – to develop a pilot lithium carbonate production plant in the Uyuni salt flat.
The plant, which will require estimated investment of US$90mn, will have initial capacity of 2,500t/y. It will use direct extraction technology and the aim is to develop it into an industrial plant with capacity of 25,000t/y.
Last year, the state company also signed an agreement with CBC and Russian company Uranium One to carry out pilot tests with brines from the Uyuni and Pastos Grandes salt flats in Potosí and Coipasa in Oruro.