Bolivia - Economy
The fate of Bolivia's lithium deposits – among the world's largest of the metal used in smartphone and electric vehicle batteries – was a hot topic in the 2026 Presidential campaign. Quiroga claimed Uranium One and CATL were selected "behind the back" of local authorities and said he would propose a new law on mineral deposits that precluded "favoritism".
The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that Bolivia holds about 15 percent of the world’s lithium, a valuable metal used to make rechargeable batteries. Lithium is defined as a “critical mineral” by the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Department of the Interior, as well as a “mineral of strategic interest” by the U.S. Department of Defense due to its widespread use in energy technology, consumer electronics, healthcare applications, and military technology.
Lithium-ion batteries have high energy density and are lightweight.5 About 75% of all lithium mined globally is used for batteries.6 Because of the use of lithium-ion batteries in grid storage and electric vehicles, lithium is essential to the green energy transition. Lithium is a crucial component of potential fusion reactors and nuclear weapons because it is used to generate tritium. Tritium is a central component of tritium-deuterium fusion fuel which is a potential energy alternative that could supply limitless clean energy. Tritium is also used in nuclear weapons. Because tritium decays at a rate of about 5% each year, nuclear weapons need constant access to lithium.
US competition with China over technological development is directly related to competition over natural resources. Critical minerals are essential to the production of clean energy technologies. In order to advance the green energy transition, the United States needs reliable access to these natural resources. Recognizing the strategic value of critical minerals early on, China established dominance over respective supply chains. This has left the United States reliant on China throughout the supply chain of key clean energy technologies, from raw materials to manufactured goods. As a result, the United States may be in a vulnerable position, as supply chain disruptions would undermine U.S. energy security. To strengthen U.S. energy security, the United States could de-risk its critical mineral supplies by deepening economic relationships with allies and partners throughout the world.
The so-called Lithium Triangle, spanning parts of Bolivia, Chile and Argentina, is home to 60 percent of the world's lithium reserves, according to the US Geological Survey. The Atacama Plateau spans across northern Chile, northwest Argentina, and southern Bolivia and is distinguished by its high concentration of salt flats, or salars, under which are lithium deposits. The lithium triangle is made up of four primary salt flats: Salar de Uyuni (Bolivia), Salar de Atacama (Chile), Salar de Olaroz (Argentina), and Salar de Hombre Muerto (Argentina).
But in the case of Bolivia, nearly all of it is still trapped underground, at an altitude of 3,600 metres (12,000 feet) in the vast Salar de Uyuni salt flat, one of the country's top tourist attractions. Bolivia has the most exclusive relationship with China because its government-owned lithium extraction and processing company, Yacimientos de Litio Boliviano (YLB), works primarily with Chinese firms. Of the three companies working with YLB, two are headquartered in China.
Wells tap into lithium-rich brine beneath the surface and shunt it toward rectangular evaporation pools with plastic liners. One there, sunshine and wind separate out lithium, salt, and other substances through evaporation. Brine usually remains in the pools for about six months. The lithium and other minerals are eventually transported and processed at a facility in nearby Rio Grande.
There are some big challenges associated with harvesting Salar de Uyuni’s lithium. Relatively rainy and cool weather means it takes longer for brine to evaporate there than at other lithium mining operations in the region. Also, Uyuni’s brine has unusually high concentrations of magnesium and potassium that has to be removed, which makes the process more expensive.
Geologists think the mineral-rich, blue-green brine beneath the salt crust contains the world’s second-largest deposit of lithium. And yet just a small fraction of it gets mined and used. Unlike the neighboring countries of Chile and Argentina, Bolivia has not been among the world’s top lithium producers. Yet with global demand for lithium rising, Bolivian leaders are trying hard to change this. The government began investing in a lithium mining operation at Salar de Uyuni in 2010.
In November 2019, Bolivian President Evo Morales was ousted from power following disputed election results and widespread protests, with the military suggesting he resign. The circumstances remain hotly debated - while the Organization of American States challenged the election results, subsequent analyses argued the OAS assessment was politically motivated. Bolivia holds approximately 21-23 million metric tons of lithium - about 20-30% of the world's total resources - concentrated in the Salar de Uyuni salt flat, though most remained unexploited at the time.
Under Morales, there were efforts to use state-owned Yacimientos de Litio Bolivianos (YLB) to not just mine lithium but refine it for battery manufacturing, keeping control within Bolivia. After the coup, the interim government led by Jeanine Áñez immediately signaled openness to foreign companies, including Tesla, to exploit Bolivia's lithium reserves.
The theory gained significant attention when in July 2020, Elon Musk responded to accusations that the U.S. organized a coup to access Bolivian lithium by tweeting "We will coup whoever we want! Deal with it." He later deleted the tweet. Bolivian President Luis Arce subsequently accused Musk and Tesla of involvement in the 2019 events. However, Bolivia's lithium extraction using evaporation methods proved expensive, the magnesium content made extraction costly, and Bolivia wasn't actually producing lithium for market sale at the time - making it an unlikely target for a resource grab. While future documents could prove otherwise, there's limited concrete evidence suggesting Musk or U.S. clean energy companies were actually involved in plotting Morales's overthrow.
More recently, Bolivia has signed major deals with Chinese and Russian companies. In 2023-2024, contracts worth approximately $2 billion were signed with China's CBC consortium (including battery giant CATL) and Russia's Uranium One Group to develop direct lithium extraction facilities. These deals faced immediate opposition - a Bolivian court suspended the contracts in June 2025 amid concerns about environmental impacts, lack of community consultation, and cost disparities between the Russian and Chinese agreements. Bolivia's first industrial-scale lithium plant, opened in late 2023, operated at only 17% capacity in 2024. Local communities near the salt flats have expressed alarm about water usage, with activists demanding greater transparency about the facilities' operations.
In 2023 and 2024 Arce's government signed deals with Russia's Uranium One and China's CBC, a subsidiary of battery manufacturer CATL, to extract lithium from the salt pan. Worth a combined $2 billion, the deals were intended to help Bolivia catch up in the race to mine the mineral. But they were blocked in Congress by infighting in the ruling party. Indigenous groups meanwhile went to court to have them scrapped on environmental grounds.
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