By Eugene Gerden
The Russian nuclear monopoly Rosatom has agreed to build an industrial complex in Bolivia for the extraction and production of lithium carbonate worth US$600 million.
The project will be implemented by the company’s mining subsidiary Uranium One Group in cooperation with the Bolivian state-owned company Yacimientos de Litio Bolivianos (Lithium Fields of Bolivia).
In June 2022, Yacimientos de Litio Bolivianos announced that Uranium One Group was one of the main bidders in the tender to develop several major lithium deposits in the country along with the American Lilac Solutions, as well as four companies from China. At that time President of Yacimientos de Litio Bolivianos (Lithium Fields of Bolivia), Carlos Ramos, said that these applicants provided the best technologies for development of the field and the conduction of mining activities on it.
Under the terms of the project, Uranium One Group will develop the Pastos Grandes field, which is located in the Potosi department in southwestern Bolivia. For Rosatom, this is the first large-scale foreign project