Bolivia and its Lithium: Can the ‘Gold of the 21st Century’ Lift a Nation out of Poverty?
11 May 2010
Bolivia and its lithium – it is an emerging tale that has begun to capture the interest of journalists and the public alike. The New Yorker, the New York Times and other top-level journals have all come to Bolivia to examine what it means when the most impoverished nation in South America sits atop of what could be one of the most important sources of mineral wealth in the coming decades. With more than half the planet’s known lithium reserves, Bolivia may hold the keys to the future of the electric car, and just at a time when its President has declared that the nation, not foreign corporations, will control that development and make the profits.
But obviously, it is a story far more complicated than that. There are serious environmental questions, significant uncertainties about the future demand for lithium, and doubts about Bolivia’s capacities to pull off such an ambitious project.
Today the Democracy Center is proud to announce a major new study: Bolivia and its Lithium: Can the ‘Gold of the 21st Century’ Lift a Nation out of Poverty? Authored by Rebecca Hollender and myself, with a great deal of help from the entire Democracy Center team, the study is based on extensive field work and more than fifty interviews with scientific and economic experts, environmental organizations, community leaders in the Salar de Uyuni region, and some of the main government officials overseeing lithium development.
As with all our Democracy Center investigations, our aim with this new study is to take a complicated issue and make it as understandable as possible to a wide audience and, as before, we are making the report available for free here in both English and Spanish.
Read “Bolivia and its Lithium”
We invite you to read either the full report, or if you prefer a much more brief executive summary:
Read the full report in PDF here.
Read just the executive summary in PDF here.
Read either the report or the executive summary in Spanish here.
Join Us for our Public Launch of the Report in Cochabamba
If you are here in Cochabamba this week, join us Thursday evening for our public launch of the report:
When: Thursday, May 13 – 6:30pm
Where: The CESU Auditorium, Calle Calama #0235, at the corner of Calle Nathaniel Aguirre
Admission: Free
Note: Copies of the printed report will be available at this event for 10Bs.
Table of Contents
· Executive Summary
· Introduction: Bolivia and the Paradox of Plenty
· Part 1: Lithium – The Superhero of Metals:
A look at lithium and its many uses, at the emerging markets for lithium and questions about that market’s long-term prospects.
· Part 2: The Race for Bolivia’s Lithium:
An examination of the region where Bolivia’s lithium resides, of the key actors in Bolivia’s lithium chase and at the Bolivian government’s plans to exploit and export lithium.
· Part Three: The Challenges Ahead on Bolivia’s Lithium Highway
An analysis of the most urgent challenges that face Bolivia and its dreams of exploiting its lithium to its best advantage: the economics, potential environmental impacts, the threat to communities, and the capacity of the Bolivian government to manage its program.
· Conclusion: Can Bolivia Beat the Resource Curse?
Note: The Democracy Center’s report on Bolivia and lithium was funded by a grant from the Wallace Global Fund, a longtime funder of the Center’s work. For those interested in knowing about that foundation (based in Washington), here is the Web site. The Democracy Center is solely responsible for the content of the report and, as is always the case, no funder of the Center is ever given an advance reading of any of our materials or is allowed to modify what we write.
46 responses to Bolivia and its Lithium: Can the ‘Gold of the 21st Century’ Lift a Nation out of Poverty?
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2010/02/123_60188.html
WHY WOULD ANYONE IN THEIR RIGHT MIND CONSIDER INVESTING IN A COUNTRY WHERE THE PRESIDENTS FAVORITE HOBBY IS NATIONALIZNG FOREIGN COMPANIES?? WHY DONT PEOPLE RESEARCH THE REALITY OF HOW MUCH ENERGY IS REQUIRED TO EXTRACT ALL THAT LITHIUM AND HOW BOLIVIAS ENERY COMPANIES ARENT READY FOR THAT, THE TRUTH IS THAT WERE NOT EVEN READY FOR MUTUN.
KOREA HAS THE BEST SOLUTION AND LIMITLES RESOURCES.
Excellent analysis. As far as the development of infrastructure to support this project goes, the Misicuni water project for the Cochabamba valley is a good object lesson. Originally started in the 1970’s, it’s still not finished. Also, with regard to foreign investment another loomimg issue may be the risk factor mentioned by Anonymous 5/12/10, 7:22 AM. Although true that foreign gas and oil companies grudgingly agreed to the government terms and did not pull out of Bolivia, exploration and development investment has vitrually dried up since the “nationalization”. Finally, the importance of controlling corruption in a society enured to it cannot be emphasized enough. It hasn’t been that long ago that government officials not slick enough to feather their nests at public expense were generally considered fools (Zonsos). And while the Morales government has said all the right things, acts of corruption by some of its members are still regularly reported.
Bolivia is South America’s Congo. Incredibly wealthy in natural resources, overtly corrupt, and one of the poorest countries of the continent. Lithium is yesterday’s tin and yesteryear’s silver. Did any of those metals lift Bolivia out of poverty, Jim? Janiwa!
The countries with most natural resources are the poorest in the world. Think about it.
“The countries with most natural resources are the poorest in the world. Think about it.”
Excellent observation. Congo [Africa in general], Central Asia, East Asia and Pacific, are all under the jackboot of an exploitative financial system whose built-in need for ‘growth’ is in the process of consuming itself, and all biological life with it.
Evo and his band of thiefs are truly inept, with their leadership nothing will get acomplished, the only industry that is doing well is the cocaine industry thanks to Evo and his band of thiefs…
$39M for Manchester United’s airplane… Cool!
sijepuis:
Ah?
Avatar?
Can you tell your readers who provided financing for your center and specifically for the report on lithium?
FOIA ? why should they give their data when you don’t even give your name? Nice try though.
Im tired of seeing “gringos ” going around the world, as “”"EXPERTS”", and write whatever it is easy to write. Live there 1 2 or 3 years sometimes few months or weeks ,and they think they understand,everything about a country, or an issue
I have my respect for the author , but I see a pattern in their intrinsec Western cultural search of “CELEBRITY” at any opportunity ..I call this an opportunisum
I would like to see a research document about the spill oil in The USA. see this http://www.intheshadowofpower.com/
This is funny spin…
What Morales is pushing is a renegotiation of Bolivia’s relationship with foreign interests. For example, after Morales took office the government successfully renegotiated the terms of all of its key foreign oil and gas contracts. All of the companies stayed in Bolivia and they all willingly paid higher taxes. The result turned Bolivia into a rarity – a nation running a budget surplus in the midst of a global recession.
Are you serious Jimbo, that is all spin, 100 percent nonsense,
You should really say that foreign oil companies that renegociated, ended up stopping billions in scheduled investments, spending only enough to maintain production levels and honor contracts. Billions were shifted to Peru among other countries, and Brazil, Argentina and Chile have invested billions in LNG conversionn facilities, preferring to import gas from Trinidad than on having to deal with unreliable Bolivia.
Where you really go intellectually dishonest.is when you claim “Bolivia” is a rarity, “running a budget surplus in the midst of a global recession” when the COUNTRIES OWN NEIGHBORS, including Peru, Chile, Brazil, are essentially doing as well, or better. Not to mention how much foreign investment they recieve. And, throwing in Colombia, these are all countries that have very sensible rules for foreign and private investment, while maintaining viable state enterprises in their extractive industries. Of course, they more or less followed through with Washington Consensus ideas you whine about, which is probably why you dont mention them. More to the point, these countries offer a much more practical models that Bolivia in a rational world would follow about Lithium. But you instead chose to prop up and more or less cheerlead for Morales brain dead half-proposals.
For a complete analysis of the role of international financial institutions and foreign corporations in Bolivia’s recent history, see the Democracy Center’s book, Dignity and Defiance, Stories from Bolivia’s Challenge to Globalization (University of California Press
Your strident pamphlet has little real analysis, but a lot of sloganeering against anything related to foreign corporations or International financial institutions.
Bol-Nica,
I got curious, googled you, and discovered you have a Blog of your own that no one seems to ever comment on. What’s your theory on why no one reads you, so much so that you have to troll here hoping to find someone, anyone who might read you?
Looking forward to hearing it.
WOW!!, el muchacho(a) es toda una eminencia en los internetz…sabe hasta de Google!!!
ummm…maybe the reason I don’t have commenters is that I do this as an occasional hobby. Don’t have George Soros paying me to pimp idiotic governments to fly-in-fly-out journalists. Maintaining a full-time blog (the type that puts enough content out there to attract readership) is part of a P.R. gig these days. I just do it for fun in my free time…
Boludo-Nica writes his blog-despite nobody reads it-for the same reason he talks to himself: “just for fun in his spare time”
Silver
Tin
Cocaine
Lithium… it does not matter
Bolivia was and will continue to be an ignorant 3rd world shithole
FOIA… do you wanna know why did I asked their data without giving my name? Something called transparency and accountability. I am not pretending to be helping the Bolivian poor nor perfirming a service to anyone. But Schultz yes… and since I am part of those he wants to save (a Bolivian living n Bolivia), I deserve to know to whom he is working for! Or should I just be quiet and thankful for the gringo´s game? Guys like Schultz have already left me without running water in Cochabamba, while profiting from a naif rebellion in the year 2000. Do you think I do noy deserve to aske them who paid their activism?
To Jim and the Democracy Centers credit, they have always listed their funding sources on the site, and never hid it.
Democracy Ctr About Funders
So… Boli-Nica has a blog! Great! Thanks for the tip… just read some of it and very good stuff indeed.
Shultz should write something about his great country the USA,
how they have invented a war on terrorism and with that pretex
invaded two arab countries and killed millions of arabs, (commited genocide).
Or does the Center for Democracy only works for third world nations…
I think the previous comments provide good evidence that it is only the whackos, left, right, and center, who populate the comments section, which is why all the rest of just read the great posts from the Center and leave the space below to nutcases (most of whom I am sure did not even bother to read the report on lithium).
if you can think, look it up, do some research…
How could whackos be from the center?
my guess is that you are a naive patriotic north american who thinks his government is benign, just and moral. well it is time to wake up to reality…
mexican, US, or Canada?
research the issue, dummy.
Well since, you all are talking about my blog, you can read a relevant post on Evo’s track record on industrial policies.
BOLIVIA – - EVO’s Industrialization Schemes FAIL, while Peru laughs all the way to the bank
Why isn’t anybody talking about how gay bald chicken expert Morales cooked the government books, especially with inflation, to make appear that there’s some sort or “economic miracle” in the region? Thousands desperately attempt to flee the country every day.
to 11:01
Maybe one reason is because he didn’t.
Hey Boli Nica
Como se dice de donde sos vos, Political-Economic-and “Random issues GURU”. I just read your articles, another either cholo piti yanqui, or a desoriented Peace corp dude , anyways. Let Bolivia do the way they decide, even if it is “slow pace” according to your International Corporate Mantra of : free market, private entrepeunership”. The world is not linear , no economic dogmas. or tell me how did China is rising as a superpower .Where they totally into free market at the begining of their Revolution. see the socks or undewear you are currently using probably are not made in USA but rather CHINA!!
So don’t give a lecture in economics that there is only one road for development an economic growth.
VIVA EVO Y VVA Bolivia seu pentelhos
Hey genius, get a clue. China OPENED UP THEIR ECONOMY……BOLIVIA CLOSES ITS ECONOMY… The Chinese have moved from 100 percent State-owned enterprises to joint stock ventures, as well breaking up state monopolies by allowing in competitors. They joined the WTO, partly to shake up bureaucrats and force modernization.
The Chinese, unlike Evo, are practical
The only road for economic devolopment is economic freedom. More economic freedom, more prosperity. Even the Chinese know that.
That’s right, but are the chinese free? Isn’t corruption part of “free enterprise” as we see it around the world?
No, because in true “free enterprise,” being corrupt or cheating means breaking agreements and contracts, which carry consequences. Laws are enforced “Free enterprise” means abiding by the rules of agreements, not bribing government officials to push ahead.
What you have in China is relative economic freedom but no political freedom. It is that economic freedom that has allowed it to become a world power. That being said, China is a brutal dictatorship. Businesses bribe the powerful Chinese communist elite to allow them to exist. It’s like paying the Mafia.
The DC seems to say a government-directed effort to industrialize Lithium can be done succesfully in Bolivia under this government. The article also seem to imply that this is some “novel approach” in Bolivian history. A truly popularly elected government, truly representing the will of Bolivia,and serving its poor.
Failing to omit how the various governments of the military-nationalist period, had at various times, Evo-level support. And how for five decades they created one of the regions most heavily statized economies – pursuing a developmentist, import-substitution model. Bolivia is littered with the wreckage of this period, with multi-million dollar boondogles rusting away. That it was the bankruptcy of this approach that led to record hyper-inflation.
Evo seems to want to replicate this obsolete model – it is all over the new constitution. Thing is his administration is just as corrupt as those governments, but with much less technical competence. Trying to do something idiotic with smart people, sometimes will leave a good thing or two. But really stupid ideas, executed by incompetents is a lose-lose.
Morales was forced to apologize in Spain for his gay chicken comments. Of course he blamed the media and said he was quoted out of context. It was funny how a rep of the Spanish gay community warned Morales to think carefully before words came out of his piehole.
Even more laughable was Morales “evidence” that the Spanish opposition tried to topple him. Newspaper articles. What an embarrassment!
You must be either a spanish steer or a queer who reads sold out newspapers which propagate lies and distort the facts. Have you ever tried reading more than the right wing propaganda? I may benefit you. But then it would easier to pass a camel through a needle hole.
http://www.cafepress.com/ccolla
:)
The Catholic yatiri Evo surely adivised the pope to have his priests eat “Chocopollo”
By the way YES, we love the free market,free enterprise sel-regulated or unregulated free market,excerted by Goldam Suckers, AIG , all those Bankster that took money from your taxes .Yes all of you that write here explain your free market “mantra” .While your money bailed out all those FREE MARKET GODS who live like in Paradise, ( annual bonuses 40,70 ,30 million), what can you tell us about financial terrorists that broke your beloved country.
“Bolivia quiere SOCIOS y NO PATRONES”. se entiende el espanol!!!
Hey Jaca, the difference is that free market fundamentalists are sometimes right in their prescriptions, Socialists are almost always wrong, Socialism produces equal misery.and that is a fact.
Wall Street enabled and fed off the bubble, no matter how rotten their intentions were, they spurred the demand for goods and services that pulled hundreds of millions of Chinese and Indians out of extreme poverty. Demand that also raised the prices for Venezuelan Oil, Bolivian Gas and Minerals enabling even ignorant socialists like Evo and Chavez to do well.
That is the worst of pirate capitalism, but it still creates wealth. Socialism, no matter how well-intentioned has only destroyed economies and produced misery.
Get real, Statism and collectivism are perversions, they are stupid and unworkable.
Would not surprise me if Jaca was an advisor to Evo the clown…
I wish I Could Anonymus ,but 90 % of any citizen of the planet would agree, that EVO is much better than your former PAYASO and murderer “Presidente BUSH” correcto pentelhos
jaca must not know the fact the US gov’t is actually making a profit with the bailout of Wall St. They are loosing money with Freddie and Fannie, which took tax payer money and gave it to these institutions to give it to people to buy homes they couldn’t afford.
Of course, a masista ignorant of the facts should not surprise us.
Hey ANONYMOUS.d I agree that I migth Know all US ins and Outs of the economy ,as well as you don’t know about ! My Country!, but pretend to lecture how Bolivia’s government should function correct!
Anyways here something that someone recommended me it might help you as well “Casino Jack and the United States of Money ” bailouts ,coruption , etc in a place where THE HIGHEST STANDARds OF ethics,altruism and benefits of the invisible hand works PERFECTLY”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TQXjV3g-Lc
The US a free market? Are you kidding me? You know how many tens of thousands of pages its tax laws and trade regulations have? The US has so much bureaucracy it makes China look like Switzerland. The most amazing thing is that it remains the richest country in the world despite its massive bureaucracy, not because of it.
Regarding the original subject, an expert says that lithium get Bolivia out of poverty.
http://www.hidrocarburosbolivia.com/bolivia-mainmenu-117/general-mainmenu-123/31447.html
Even the New York Times agree.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/03/world/americas/03lithium.html