Thus, the planned electric car-comes Offensive, gets a German company for the first time, direct access to the important raw material of Lithium in South America. This was decided in Berlin on Wednesday in the presence of Federal Minister Peter Altmaier (CDU), a cooperation between the companies in baden-württemberg ACISA and the Bolivian state-owned company Yacimientos de Litio Bolivianos (YLB),. The consortium led by ACISA, the mining specialist, K-UTEC AG, Sondershausen, according to data from Thuringia’s Economics Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee (SPD).
The Thuringian company can bring in its experience in the preparation of salts from salt lakes. Tiefensee had taken, according to the Ministry for a trip to South America, with a business delegation in October 2018 and agreements. The German consortium have set themselves against competition, especially from China. YLB will hold 51 percent of the shares. Is planned by 2022, at a funding of 30,000 to 40,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide in the year – hundreds of thousands of E-cars with Lithium batteries. The investment amounts to 300 to 400 million euros.
Also, Bolivia’s foreign Minister, Diego Pary Rodríguez travelled to the signing of the contract to Berlin. “We have made very good experiences in the cooperation with Germany,” he told the German press Agency. And the demand for Lithium will grow massively. Finally, the car companies VW and Audi had announced billions in electric mobility plans; for the high-performance batteries it takes the “white Gold” of Lithium. In the race for the award of the contract, several Chinese companies. The German-Bolivian project is scheduled to last 70 years.
a key raw material of our century
In Bolivia are suspected to Occur in the salt flat (Salar) of Uyuni is the world’s largest Lithium. “Lithium is one of the key raw materials of the 21st century. Century,“ said ACISA-in-chief Wolfgang dirt of the dpa. “Through the Joint Venture of Germany will secure, for the first time after decades of direct access to important, non-domestic raw materials”, – stressed dirt. “This is particularly important for the German automotive industry.” Federal Minister Altmaier stressed: “Germany is a leading location for the battery cell production.” A large proportion of production costs attributable to raw materials and Material. “Therefore, we need a reliable and competitive Raw material supply from an environmentally friendly raw material extraction and raw material processing,” said Altmaier. Of particular importance for the battery cell production to Lithium, the demand could quadruple by 2025. “The German industry is doing well, therefore, to secure your needs at an early stage, in order not to fall behind, and dependency.”
