Bolivia’s “grey gold” mine

It’s been estimated that Bolivia holds most of the world's reserves of lithium, a mineral that could be a promising alternative fuel to power hybrid cars and batteries for some electronic devices. With global demand increasing for lithium, foreign firms, the Bolivian government, and indigenous residents are all staking their claim to the reserves located beneath the Uyuni Salt Flats.

The promise of riches from the “grey gold” has lead the state-owned mining firm to drill into the salt flats in order to figure out the exact size of Bolivia’s lithium reserves are. Results of the digging project will be revealed in December and an accurate number can be given to the estimates that range from big to massive:

According to official Bolivian figures, Salar de Uyuni, which sits 3,700 meters high near the crest of the Andes Mountains in the southern part of the country, could hold 140 million tons of lithium.

But the US Geological Survey has a much more conservative estimate, at 5.4 million tons, although that still amounts to about half the world's reserves.

Could the lithium reserves turn Bolivia’s fortunes around much like the discovery of vast oil reserves on the Arabian Peninsula over seventy years ago? We’ll have to wait and see.

Image- MSNBC (“Piles of salt lay on the salt flats of Uyuni, Bolivia, where the population has harvested salt for years. Underneath the salt lies the world's largest lithium reserves. Lithium is the key component for electronics batteries and electric car batteries.”)
Online Sources- BBC News, New York Times, LAHT, Sydney Morning Herald, Lonely Planet