Bolivia looks to attract Brazilian mining investment

The Bolivian government wants to attract Brazilian investors to its mining industry.

Bolivia’s ambassador to Brasília, Horácio Villegas, met with representatives of the Brazilian association of mining and mineral exploration companies, ABPM, to express interest in strategic partnerships between the two countries. The aim is to develop Bolivian mining aimed at essential minerals for the energy transition and agriculture.

Bolivia has major potential in lithium and currently also produces urea and plans to sell the input for fertilizers to Brazil, which is a global agricultural powerhouse.

“We have a 700,000t [urea] plant. And we plan another urea plant for 1.5Mt/y year, which would be on the border with Brazil, mainly to serve the [Brazilian state] Mato Grosso market,” said Villegas in an ABPM release. He highlighted that the Bolivian government seeks to consolidate a partnership with Brazil to supply essential inputs for fertilizers.

The ambassador also said Bolivia is studying a partnership model to encourage private investment. 

“The [Bolivia] mining law needs to be reformed. We have a package of laws that will be introduced in congress. So this is probably a good time for this change," said the diplomat.

ABPM representatives highlighted Bolivia's mining potential but warned that the country needs to have clear rules for the sector and said projects must have less government participation to attract private sector players.

“We want to support the development of the Bolivian mining sector, and we’re very impressed by the country's desire to add value to its production. The challenge we see is how the government will manage its mining projects without necessarily being a direct partner in the projects,” said Luís Vessani, director of ABPM.

He also underlined that Bolivia has potential for cobalt, silver and copper.

The association announced a partnership with the Bolivian embassy in Brazil to organize, in the second half of this year, a conference for businessmen from both countries to exchange experiences and discuss commercial partnerships.

In March, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva met with his Bolivian counterpart Luis Arce to discuss measures to increase trade and integration between the two countries.

The two leaders talked about the possibility of Brazilian state-run oil and gas firm Petrobras investing in gas prospecting in Bolivia, in addition to Bolivia's interest in partnering with Brazil for exploration of lithium.