"Analysis shows that a world dependent on lithium for its vehicles could soon face even tighter resource constraints than we face today with oil," wrote [William] Tahil, pointing out that lithium-rich South America would become the new Middle East. "Concentration of supply would create new geopolitical tensions, not reduce them."
The biggest source of lithium – either as a carbonate or chloride – is the limited number of salt pans and salt lake deposits around the world, mostly in countries such as Chile and Argentina. The last and biggest untapped reserve of lithium salt, according to Tahil, is in the Bolivia salt pans.
"Bolivia is said to contain lithium reserves of 5.4 million tonnes or nearly 50 per cent of the global lithium metal reserve base, and an even higher percentage of the lithium salt reserves," he writes. And while attempts have been made to get at these reserves, "The current political situation in the country is acting as a strong disincentive for western mining companies to operate there."
