Bolivian lithium sales booming

State-run company Yacimientos de Litio Bolivianos (YLB) collected more than 243mn bolivianos (US$35mn) from sales of lithium carbonate and potassium chloride in January-June this year, over 27% more than the 191mn bolivianos reported in full-year 2021.

The increase in YLB's revenues was due to both higher prices of the company's products and greater production, hydrocarbons and energies minister Franklin Molina Ortiz said in a ministry (MHE) statement. 

In the first half of the year, YLB sold approximately 18,700t of potassium chloride and 400t of lithium carbonate.

Molina said that when Luis Arce took office, he ordered that the development of the lithium sector be accelerated, so progress was made on a lithium carbonate plant that is expected to have production capacity of 15,000t/y of the mineral.

"With this historic project, and the application of direct lithium extraction (DLE) technology, the sector will become a pillar of the Bolivian economy," added Molina.

“The industrialization of our lithium is a priority for our government," Arce said in the MHE release.

While the lithium carbonate produced by the company in 1H22 was exported to Russia and China, around two thirds of its potassium chloride was sold to Brazil, Chile and Peru, while the remainder went to the domestic market.