In June 2023, the Yacimientos de Litio Boliviano (YLB) state corporation and the Chinese firm signed the agreement to build the plant, which has direct extraction technology, in the Uyuni salt flat in Potosí.

The executive president of YLB, Karla Calderón, assured that they expect to close in the “coming weeks” the stage of the agreement corresponding to the technical and financial feasibility studies of the project. “From now on we would be sitting down regarding the business model and, as appropriate, we would already be signing a contract for the implementation start,” she said.

Calderón described that before that, the contract must go through the Plurinational Legislative Assembly (ALP), according to Bolivian regulations and legislation.

Calderón previously provided information on the subject to residents and authorities from the municipality of Coroma, Potosí, about the results of the technical feasibility studies for the building of the plant in the North of the salt flat.

The multinational Citic Guoan Group built a lithium carbonate plant in record time in just nine months in 2022, which is why construction is expected to begin after the signing of the agreement for the corresponding studies.

Citic Guoan is also the first company to venture into Direct Lithium Extraction from raw brine. Its potential in researchers and knowledge management allowed it to build the largest production plant with direct extraction technology in the world at the end of 2022.

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