Bolivia’s Big Bet on Lithium Is a Long Shot
It has the world’s biggest reserves of a mineral crucial to reducing carbon emissions — and a history of commodity booms and busts that have failed to yield lasting economic development.
Waiting for dollars.
Photographer: Marcelo Perez del Carpio/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Just wait for the lithium to kick in. In a nutshell, that’s the message from President Luis Arce’s government to thousands of Bolivians worriedly evaluating their finances, waiting in interminable lines in hopes of getting some dollars before Bolivia’s balance of payments breaks and takes their bolivianos down with it.
The claims from La Paz are not outright crazy. Bolivia has the world’s biggest lithium reserves. And the mineral has become invaluable for the transition to a carbon-free economy, which apparently will require lots of lithium ion batteries.