Lithium deposits could power long-exploited Bolivia's future

[Judi Lynn]

Source: McClatchy Newspapers

Lithium deposits could power long-exploited Bolivia's future
By Tyler Bridges, McClatchy Newspapers
Tyler Bridges, Mcclatchy Newspapers – Fri Jan 30, 2:47 pm

RIO GRANDE , Bolivia — On a remote Andean plain here, a short drive on unpaved roads from the world's largest salt flat, 120 government workers are constructing a facility to help power the fuel-efficient electric cars of the future.

The plant, in a sparsely populated region, is supposed to begin producing basic compounds of lithium, which is used to make batteries for cell phones, power tools, computers and other electronic devices, by year's end.

Government officials think that Bolivia possesses the world's biggest lithium reserves, and they also think that the country is poised to profit big-time from the automakers' push to develop electric cars that will run on lithium ion batteries.

" Bolivia will become a big producer in six years of batteries," Luis Alberto Echazu, the minister of mining and metallurgy, said in an interview. He ticked off three companies that he said have expressed interest in investing in the government's lithium venture: Sumitomo , Mitsubishi and Bollore , a French company.

Officials from the three companies didn't respond to requests for comment.

Lithium is the lightest metal and the least dense solid. It's typically extracted from beneath salt flats, and about 70 percent of the world's supplies come from Chile and Argentina . While lithium batteries don't power hybrid vehicles such as the Toyota Prius, analysts think that the fuel-efficient electric cars of the future likely will use them.


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20090130/sc_mcclatchy/3157090_1

[jpak]

1. Our trade agreements with Latin Am. should ensure that their indigenous resources are not exploited

and the local people get a *big* piece of the pie.

[Peace Patriot]

2. You are so right! Also, South America demands it. It's a new day.

This is why the Bushwhacks and the corporate dragons behind them hate Hugo Chavez so much. After centuries of often brutal US exploitation in South America, the Venezuelans pushed back. Now, 8 of the 10 major countries have strong democratic institutions, leftist (6) or center-left (2) governments, who are strong advocates of their country and their people, and, what is more, have formalized a South American 'common market'--UNASUR--for cooperative political and economic action with social justice goals.

It all started (or rather, came to a head) when the Venezuelan people peacefully defeated a US (Bushwhack)-supported rightwing military coup, against the elected Chavez government, in 2002. That was the most important event in South America in the last 100 years, at least. With that victory for the people, the Chavez government began a series of strong push-back victories--defeating a Bushwhack-supported crippling oil professionals' strike, defeating a Bushwhack-supported recall election, defeating additional Bushwhack-instigated coup/assassination attempts, and winning further elections--all with millions of US tax dollars being spent to bring down the Chavez government. Democracy won! Chavez began negotiating a better deal for the Venezuelan people with the oil giants. And this vanguard democracy movement in Venezuela has been a great inspiration to the people of other South American countries to do the same.

Here's the line-up now:

Strong leftist governments: Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay (also, further north, leftists elected in Nicaragua, Guatemala and soon El Salvador). (Popular approval ratings for these governments range from 60% to 90%.)

Center-left governments: Brazil (strong ally of the above); Chile (allied with the leftist countries on some issues, especially UNASUR and non-interference by the US).

Corrupt free-tradist: Peru (Bushwhack-friendly government has a 20% approval rating.)

Fascist narco-state (with cosmetic democratic trappings): Colombia (extremely corrupt; $6 BILLION in Bushwhack military aid).

The Bushwhacks kept trying to shove "free trade" (the rich get richer) down South Americans' throats, along with other bad, imperialistic projects, such as the corrupt, failed, murderous US "war on drugs." The six leftist countries have strongly pushed back, with the center-left countries (especially Brazil) giving them important support, in the face of Bushwhack/US aggression.

So the situation is that, not only should the people of South America get a big piece of the pie--from our point of view, as the right thing to do, in support of democracy and social justice--they are demanding it for themselves, and have done the hard work on their democratic and cooperative strength, to make that possible--to elect leaders who fight back, and to form alliances in the interest of the majority of the people.

[FarCenter]

3. Sumitomo , Mitsubishi and Bollore

I doubt that the Bolivians are interested in investment by the US.

They would want investment from the technologically advanced countries -- Japan and the EU.

[ronnie624]

4. Argentina update: wars for gold and lithium

The promise made by UK-Swiss mining company, Xstrata, that it would bring benefits to Argentinean neighbours of its huge Alumbrera mine have not been fulfilled. Now an even bigger venture is being proposed in the mountains less than 20 kilometres away.

In the same province, Catamarca, the US company FMC has also been accused of human rights violations by local residents

*****

Cinema Teatro Catamarca, in front of the main plaza in San Fernando del Valle de Catamarca. Governor Arnoldo Castillon, the Argentinian Secretary of Mining - currently Governer of La Rioja provience - Angel Maza; and Argentinian president, Carlos Menem, announce the launching of construction of the infrastructure of the mines of Bajo la Alumbrera, in front of a hundred euphoric functionaries and company officials. "This is the Argentina that we need, that is open to the world, which recieves investments, which promises a future," says Menem, in his perfect blue suit. Three years later, Menem returned with his entire cabinet to Andalgalá to inaugurate the phase of mining operations. True to his style, he himself triggered the first explosions in the mountain and the first milling of ore.

The publicity campaign of the company and of the politicians who have followed promised the construction of a suburb of 5000 persons, new schools, a high-tech hospital, paved roads and 6000 jobs. This propaganda opened all sorts of doors, but none of these projects were carried out. The Autoconvocados say that no more than 90 residents of Andalgalá work in the mines. The rest, they say, are "foreign professionals."

<http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=5302>

[Judi Lynn]

7. Never have seen anything like this situation described in your link. My god.

Wouldn't you just know it, the Argentinian President who threw open the doors to this radical form of exploitation, all destructive to the country, and to the inhabitants is none other than good _Bush family friend, and impeached former President, Saul Carlos Menem. Jesus H. Christ. What a gift to the world HE has been. And to think he also drove their country into the ditch economically before mercifully leaving office, too.

From your article:

Canadian mining company, Northern Orion (stakeholder in Alumbrera), will soon begin the construction of infrastructure of another mining project, three times larger than Bajo Alumbrera, only 17 kilometers from the town, in the peaks of the mountains located directly facing the center of the city. They plan to extract gold, silver and molybdenum. "The development of this project is technically possible, and could be carried out as an operation of low costs and long life," say the company reports. They plan to dynamite at least 70,000 tons of ore per day, for up to 30 years.

The Vecinos Autoconvocados point out that this mountain is the origin of three rivers which provide all the water to the region: almost a quarter of the entire province. Everyone fears that this will be the final blow to the town. Already many houses and lands are showing placards offering them "for sale."

Thanks for the information. Had never heard of this place, and of the fact Argentina also has lithium until a few minutes ago. It's good to know about it for future reference.

Here's a quick look at something I found about the place:

http://i81.photobucket.com.nyud.net:8090/albums/j233/stirlincelt/LaAlumbrera-sm2.jpg

First Ever in Latin America: Mining Corporation Charged with “Crimes Against the Environment” in Argentina
Posted on September 8th, 2008 by Marc Choyt

Quoting directly from this article published in Mine Watch, “Catamarca is a beautiful desert province of northwest Argentina, with mountain ranges, deserts, and verdant oasis valleys. Runoff from snow-capped peaks and underground aquifers once supplied small-farmers throughout the region with pure mineral waters for their crops of fruit, nuts and vegetables. These lands are now dried up and waters undrinkable, contaminated with heavy metals.

Family farms have dried up, leaving poverty and creating a culture of exclusion and dependency. The town of Andalgalà in Catamarca is emblematic of the social and ecological conflicts brought on by Big Mining: Miners live in gated communities, while common citizens cannot drink the tap water and schools and health systems languish…”

Gold from this mine enters the international market where it is mixed with other gold. Atrocities such as this support the notion that transparency from mine to market truly does represent a best practice.

More:
http://www.fairjewelry.org/archives/334

[ronnie624]

8. In your opening article,

the author snootily mentions that Lithco 'invested' in Argentina instead of Bolivia, so I thought it would be interesting to search for the result of that 'investment', and as usual, it turns out that the only benefactors were the owners and operators of foreign corporations. Big surprise.

And it turns out that Lithco and FMC are the same company.

[Judi Lynn]

10. Oh, REALLY! That's interesting, all right. We really get jerked around by the media, don't we?

It's almost becoming a game to see if you can figure out what the REAL news is.

Thanks for the information. It's good to know.

[Dumak]

5. Good for them

Here in the US, we'd give the lithium deposits to a big mining company, and they'd sell it to a country that will make it into something useful. Then we'd scratch our heads and wonder where all the manufacturing jobs went.

[IndianaGreen]

6. Bolivia, a very poor country long exploited by the capitalists

The current struggle involves the indigenous peoples of the Americas taking power and reclaiming their resources from foreign investors. Che Guevara and Alberto Granado were radicalized during their motorcycle tour of South America, which included working at the San Pablo leprosarium in Peru, and seeing the exploitation of miners by ALCOA in Bolivia. I wish Che had lived long enough to see Morales in Bolivia, Correa in Ecuador, and the great Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, bring about his dream for a more perfect and just society in which racism, homophobia, sexism, and all class differences and forms of exploitation are eliminated.

[Joanne98]

9. They need to nationalize it NOW!

[Judi Lynn]

11. Bolivia Has Half of World's Lithium for Electric Cars, NYT Says

Bolivia Has Half of World's Lithium for Electric Cars, NYT Says
By Theo Mullen

Feb. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Bolivia holds as much as half of the world's lithium reserves, a key component in making hybrid or electric cars, the New York Times reported, citing Oji Baba, an executive with Japan's Mitsubishi Corp.'s base metals unit.

The country, presided over by the government of President Evo Morales, has a growing nationalist sentiment about the reserves, the newspaper said.

Bolivia has nationalized its oil and natural gas industries and the government is talking of controlling the lithium stores, according to the Times.

Several indigenous groups, such as those on the edge of Salar de Uyuni, the world's largest salt flat and the location of much of the minerial, suggest the country could become the ``Saudi Arabia of lithium,'' the newspaper said.

More:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=aPbK3ws7ABpI&refer=latin_america

[AngryAmish]

12. First you get the lithium, then you get the power, then you get the women

[Judi Lynn]

13. Don't we all know about that? I guess so!

You can only imagine how much lithium this man, Merrill Jessop, must have.

http://annie-thejourney.com.nyud.net:8090/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/flds_merill_family.jpg

[AngryAmish]

14. I imagine he has a tremendous amount of lithium

How else would you keep that expression on your wives' faces.