In Bolivia, Lithium Is A Tightly Controlled Commodity

UYUNI, Bolivia -- In the rush to build the next generation of hybrid or electric cars, a sobering fact confronts both automakers and governments seeking to lower their reliance on foreign oil: almost half of the world's lithium, the mineral needed to power the vehicles, is found here in Bolivia -- a country that may not be willing to surrender it so easily.

Japanese and European companies are busily trying to strike deals to tap the resource, but a nationalist sentiment about the lithium is building quickly in the government of President Evo Morales, an ardent critic of the United States who has already nationalized Bolivia's oil and natural gas industries.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[Beamin1]

You guys are all forgetting that dickboosh isn't in charge anymore..

[chonus]

Way to go Bolivia. Best of luck to you!

[JScott]

Oh please De Beers has pretty much a monopoly on diamond mining and there's no whining about that, socialism et al.....oh I forgot they are indigenous tribes not white.....­hmmm there's some racism there.

[breakfast]

So does this means we wil soon enhance our forces in Colombia, in order to be able to liberate the Bolivian lithium?

[windypaperboy]

Gaza Holcaust photos

http://www.flickr.com/search/?s=rec&z=t&ss=2&w=all&q=gaza+holocaust+justice&m=text

[BADRALDUJA]

oh dear god the first picture of the boy with his eyes blown out from white phosphorous,you should have listened to hin bravely speak like an adult.
i guess now the attention of american weapons will be aiming bolivia soon,to liberate something

[305Rider]

Take THAT Santa Cruz!

[msriseup]

I say good for them.

[SurrealPumpkin]

I wonder how this will affect the price of medical lithium.

[newshawk14]

I believe that the US at one time mined lithium in the form of a mineral called lepidolite from the Pala
area in southern CA. I wouldn't be surprised if the Salton Sea and some of salt flats, have significant
amounts of lithium, there is probably reasonable amounts that could be recovered from ordinary
seawater, if you are doing desalinization. If I remember correctly, after hydrogen and helium, lithium
is the third most common element in the universe.

[FebM]

Fair trade, thats all Bolivians want...... And it will work this time
respect and mutual interests

[305Rider]

At least someone gets it.

[NYCdowntown]

Power to the IDIANS!

[ChristopherAtom]

power to ALL HUMANITY!

[NYCdowntown]

100% agree, but if power is divided equally! for once

[yappnmutt]

morales has probably already attended the chavez school of covert usa intervention tactics.

[sticksnstones]

Gee, yappy, I think you have these democratically elected heads of state confused with the dictatorships the USA has always funded and supplied and supported in Central and South America for well over a century and a half. Just sayin' ....

Get on your little google thingie and search School of the Americas. That's a good start. Then read a few books. Turn off your TV for a while. You might learn something besides spin.

[yappnmutt]

you missed the entire point of my post.

[305Rider]

Then you probably haven't of the CIA's failed coup in Venezuela in order to control it's oil.

[sticksnstones]

The only school in the Western Hemisphere that teaches interventionist tactics, terrorist tactics, and supports authoritarian dictatorships is located in the US at Ft. Benning, Georgia. This School of the Americas was originally located in Panama, but was ultimately ousted by its president who declared it to be the most serious threat to stability in Central and South America.

Morales and Chavez are both democratically elected heads of state.

[ChristopherAtom]

I trained at Ft Benning. I would walk by the School of the Americas and think to myself "this is f**kt up." It always seamed weird to me. I went through jump school with six El Salvadorian officers.W­hen I'd look at them I'd think back to seeing a magazine a friend showed me that had intensely graphic photos of peoples faces that had been half melted off by slowly dripping acid on them. The captions read "This was the preferred method of information extraction of El Salvadorian troops taught by the CIA." Is that the kinda crap we were teaching them? Kinda puts water boarding to shame.
Sad, truly sad.

[rucognizant]

Cnn did a report on electric cars today. If they run out of power they stop dead in their tracks! Sounds like a real chinese fire drill on the highways. Then you have to hook up for 2 hours to recharge. Doesn't seem like a job for AAA. Americans are going to have to evolve before using them well!

[jrb35]

That's why we need plug-in hybrids. They run on there battery for the first 60 miles or so. That's fine because something like 95% of Americans drive less than 60 miles per day. If you have to drive more, the hybrid engine immediately kicks in and you continue on your way. While driving on the fuel efficient hybrid engine, the battery recharges. Then you switch back to driving on battery power. No one needs to stop for two hours to charge.

(My stats on battery life and % of Americans who drive less than 60 miles per day may be off a bit but they're certainly in the ballpark.)

[ChristopherAtom]

First will come sanctions and a trade embargo, if that fails, then the economic hitmen go in, if that fails, then they send in the jackals, and finally, if that fails, we are going to war.

[Prattvictory2]

First comes the CNN special about what a nasty guy he is and how he's smooching big kisses from Hugo, Fidel and Puty. Then there are pictures of him with Amadenijad. Next thing you know KBR's building Pizza Huts on the American military compound in Bolivia right next to the lithium mines.

[305Rider]

Pizza Hut tried to open up shop in La Paz, but If nothing changed from the last time I was there it hasn't worked out because they want to charge Bolivianos as much as they charge here.