Electric cars are raising the demand for lithium for use in batteries.  The LEAF electric vehicle, as an example, uses a 24 kWh lithium-nickel-manganese polymer battery.  So where do people find lithium?  It’s relatively rare.  We heard a couple of months ago that Afghanistan has a lot of lithium,  which partially explains why our military is still there.  I sincerely hope Bolivia isn’t ever a country the U.S. military invades for its resources, but various companies are already very interested in their natural resources.  Bolivia has around 50 percent of the world’s lithium, about 5.4 million tons, according to the United States Geological Survey.  Some conservatives are already angry that Bolivia has decided to claim their own natural resources instead of selling them off to the highest American bidder.

Bolivian President Evo Morales

Bolivia, a landlocked country that is thought to be home to about 50 percent of the world’s lithium supply, is promising to begin production at its first major lithium mine and processing center in 2014. That mine, which is located in the Uyuni salt flat, will be planned in collaboration with South Korea, which will in turn receive a claim to 30 percent of its products.

Global demand for lithium is expected to as much as triple in the next decade, and companies like LG, Mitsubishi, and Sanyo—which is planning a 1000-percent increase in annual lithium ion battery production in just five years—are currently jostling elbows in an effort to lock down the resources that will allow them to profit from that boom. But despite the international sourcing scramble, South Korean and Japanese state-owned mining entities are to date Bolivia’s only partners in developing its lithium reserves.

After negotiating with companies including France’s Bollore, South Korea’s LG, and Japan’s Sumitomo and Mitsubishi Corp, Bolivia’s President Evo Morales decided to develop a lithium industry in Uyuni by itself last year.

“Bolivia guarantees a change in the world’s energy balance … we assure the world we’ll be able to supply enough lithium for electric cars,” Morales told reporters.

Lithium is the main component of the rechargeable batteries that power everything from laptops to cars to cameras. Existing suppliers such as neighboring Argentina and Chile can meet existing demand, but Bolivia plans to develop a industry ahead of a possible electric car boom, which could will cause demand for lithium to soar. Who can blame Morales? I hope Bolivia is successful with its lithium production and I hope they hold out against the corporations who want to control their resources.

Info from Reuters and HybridCars

Containers of brine to extract lithium are seen at the Uyuni salt lake about 500 km (311 miles), south of La Paz, October 27, 2010. Bolivian President Evo Morales said on October 22 that the impoverished Andean country does not need foreign investors to develop an ambitious lithium carbonate project by 2014. Picture taken in October 27.