On his Twitter account, the president said that the Bolivian Lithium Deposits company (Yacimientos de Litio Bolivianos) sold 530 tons of this metal’s carbonate to Chinese firm Ganfeng Lithium, one of the biggest of this sector in the world, achieving an income of 24 million bolivianos (nearly three and a half million dollars).

Arce said his country seeks to strengthen commercial ties with the major global economies, within the framework of respect for the sovereignty of peoples.

The national policy aims to achieve a lithium production with added value and not just the exploitation of the raw material.

Therefore, it promotes the relaunching of the industrialization process of this metal (also called white gold) which also aims to speed up some projects, according to information provided by Minister of Hydrocarbons and Energies, Franklin Molina, early in April.

After the November 2019 coup d’état against President Evo Morales, the de facto government stalled the lithium industrialization plan for 11 months, which had been developed for 10 years until then.

According to President Arce, the control over the reserves of this metal in Bolivia was one of the reasons why the Morales administration was overthrown.

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