Spotlight: Latin America’s biggest lithium deposits

Latin America is shaping up to become a global powerhouse in the lithium mining industry.

Chile and Argentina were the early frontrunners in terms of production; Bolivia hosts the world’s biggest resources of the battery metal; and Mexico is set to become a significant producer in the coming years.

With demand set to soar from the booming electric vehicle industry in the coming decades, BNamericas takes a look at the region’s biggest lithium deposits.

TOP LITHIUM DEPOSITS

1. Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia

Lithium equivalent resource: 21.1Mt

Type: Brine

Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni salt flat ranks among the world’s biggest lithium deposits.

State-run Yacimientos de Litio Bolivianos (YLB) reported a total resource of 21.1Mt lithium equivalent in its 2020 report in March.

Bolivia hosts the biggest lithium resources globally, at 21Mt, according to the US Geological Survey.

Production plans are on a more modest scale.

YLB is advancing a US$96.4mn industrial lithium carbonate plant with German engineering firm K-Utec which will produce around 15,000t/y.

The plant was due for completion in October 2020 but is now expected to be ready next year as a result of delays from the COVID-19 pandemic.

2. Salar de Atacama, Chile

Lithium reserves: 8.3Mt

Type: Brine

Chile’s Atacama salt flat is another of the biggest lithium deposits globally.

Reserves stand at around 8.3Mt, Leonidas Osses, president of the lithium committee of the Chilean mining engineers institute (IIMC), said in August 2019.

While Bolivia is the world leader in lithium resources, Chile takes the top spot in reserves, at 8.6Mt, according to latest USGS data.

SQM and Albemarle are already producing lithium at Atacama.

3. Cauchari-Olaroz, Argentina

Lithium reserves and resources: 5.30Mt

Type: Brine

Cauchari-Olaroz hosts 3.73Mt of lithium in measured and indicated resources, plus a further 887,300t inferred, along with proven and probable reserves of 682,920t.

The project hosts more than a quarter of Argentina’s total lithium resources, which stood at 17Mt last year, second biggest after Bolivia, according to the USGS.

Argentina’s lithium reserves are third largest after Chile and Australia, at 1.7Mt.

Lithium Americas and JV partner Ganfeng Lithium are advancing the US$565mn Cauchari-Olaroz project, which has a production capacity of 40,000t/y lithium carbonate and a 40-year life.

Lithium Americas expects works to be complete in mid-2021, compared to an earlier estimate of early-2021, with the delay due to temporary COVID-19 suspensions earlier this year.

4. Sonora project, Mexico

Lithium resources: 1.66Mt

Type: Polylithionite

Mexico’s Sonora project hosts total resources of 8.82Mt lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE), or 1.66Mt lithium metal, according Bacanora Lithium.

Bacanora and JV partner Ganfeng Lithium are advancing a US$420mn phase one project, which is expected to become Mexico’s first lithium producing asset in 2023.

Output will start at 17,500t/y lithium carbonate before doubling to 35,000t/y following a US$380mn expansion.

The USGS puts Mexico’s lithium resources at 1.7Mt, joint eighth globally alongside Canada.

5. Olaroz, Argentina

Lithium resource: 1.20Mt

Orocobre began lithium carbonate production from the Olaroz Lithium Facility in 2015.

The Argentine asset hosts a measured and indicated resource of 6.4Mt LCE, or 1.20Mt of lithium.

Orocobre expects to sustain current continuous production for more than 40 years using only around 15% of the defined resource.

Orocobre has a 66.5% interest in Olaroz, with Toyota Tsusho holding 25% and Jujuy province 8.5% through its JEMSE (Jujuy Energía y Mineria Sociedad del Estado) company.

The latest estimates put the Olaroz deposit marginally ahead of Orocobre’s nearby Cauchari project, where a 2019 estimate showed 6.3Mt LCE (1.18Mt lithium), comprising 4.8Mt LCE in the measured and indicated categories and 1.5Mt inferred.