South Korea’s state-run mineral development corporation set up a joint venture
with its Bolivian counterpart to develop lithium in the South American country,
sources said Friday.
Seoul’s embassy in La Paz said a consortium made up
of Korea Resources Corp. and POSCO, South Korea’s leading steelmaker, signed a
deal to create a lithium venture with Comibol, Bolivia’s mineral development
corporation.
Under the agreement reached Thursday, the new company will
make anodes and cathodes for electric vehicles that will run on rechargeable
batteries made from lithium found in Bolivia.
The country’s lithium
deposit is estimated to stand at around 5.4 million tons, or half of all known
reserves in the world.
Comibol is to provide the lithium, nickel and
manganese needed to make batteries, and the Korean consortium plans to offer
manufacturing expertise.
The tie-up is expected to be a win-win
arrangement, because Bolivia can learn the manufacturing process from its South
Korean partners, while Seoul can gain access to the critical natural resource
that is used in mobile phones, notebook computers and batteries for electric
vehicles.
South Korea, which is the largest manufacturer of lithium
rechargeable batteries, imports 12,000 tons of lithium from countries such as
Chile and Argentina.