Bolivia taps into vast reserve of lithium, a potential power source for electronics and politics.


A sheet of sparkling white...Bolivia's Uyuni salt lake stretches to the horizon.

Believed to have formed when a prehistoric lake evaporated thousands of years ago, Bolivia's leaders hope it holds the keys to the future.

The lake's salty crust is rich in lithium - the element that powers rechargeable batteries in cell phones, laptops...and hybrid or electric cars.

With construction already underway, Bolivia plans to invest $350 million to build a plant that could produce 30,000 tons of lithium carbonate each year...an amount equal to thirty percent of the world's current supply.

At an international forum in La Paz, Bolivia's president Evo Morales said while investment will be needed, the lithium should be kept under government control so profits don't fall into foreigner's hands.

Bolivian President Evo Morales saying (Spanish): "We don't have enough economic power to finance (the lithium industrialization). We have to seek partners . However, our policies are very defined, not by Evo's or some other party's will, but by the Bolivian people, who are determined to not allow the state to lose its sovereignty over its natural resources."

Policies that have placed mining and energy resources under state control have won favor among Bolivia's rural poor, who distrust foreign investment. It is a population that could help deliver the presidency to Morales once again in December.

Katharine Jackson, Reuters.