The Bolivian state-owned company Yacimientos de Litio Bolivianos (YBL) and the mining company of Rosatom - Uranium One Group, have signed an agreement on the construction of a lithium processing plant in the department of Potosi.
"Today, our company YBL signs an agreement with the Russian company Uranium One Group on the implementation of a pilot project for the direct extraction of lithium, which involves the construction of a plant with a capacity of 14 thousand tons per year," said the president of the Bolivian company Carla Calderon at the ceremony, which was broadcast on the television channel Bolivia TV.
The project will be implemented in three stages. At the first stage, the plant, which will be located in the municipality of Kolcha K, will produce 1,000 tons of lithium carbonate per year. "Today, after signing, we are promptly starting the design of a lithium carbonate production plant," Yuri Ulyanin, a representative of Uranium One Group, said at the ceremony.
The Uyuni salt marsh, near which a plant will be built, located at an altitude of 3,650 m above sea level. It covers an area of more than 10.5 thousand square kilometers and is the largest lithium-bearing salt marsh in the world. The agreement on the construction of the installation also involves the use of Russian technology for direct sorption extraction of lithium. The Uyuni region is characterized by a high level of industrial and infrastructural development, a wide network of roads and energy supply.
In June, the international mining company Rosatom Uranium One Group and the Bolivian state-owned company Yacimientos de Litio Bolivianos signed a framework agreement on the construction of an industrial complex for the extraction and production of lithium carbonate in the department of Potosi. Lithium was supposed to be mined at another salt marsh, the Pastos Grandes salar. As noted in a press release distributed by Rosatom State Corporation, during this time a program of geophysical research at Salar has been implemented and a preliminary feasibility study of the project has been developed. In cooperation with Thomas Frias University, laboratory tests of the Russian sorption technology were carried out, the results of which confirmed its high efficiency on the brines of Bolivian salars.
The international group of companies Uranium One Group is part of the contour of the state corporation Rosatom. It is one of the world's largest uranium mining companies with a diversified portfolio of international assets in Kazakhstan, Tanzania and Namibia.
