Bolivia pins hopes on lithium, electric vehicles

President ready to sink $200 million in mining world’s largest reserves

LA PAZ, Bolivia – To Bolivia’s president, it’s the great silvery-white hope.

Lithium, the lightest metal. Half the density of water. Used in cell phone, laptop and iPod batteries, and in the years to come, many thousands of electric and hybrid vehicles propelling humanity into a cleaner energy future.

“Lithium is the hope not just for Bolivia but for all inhabitants of the planet,” President Evo Morales said before meeting in Paris last month with Bollore Group, one of several companies vying to extract the metal from remote salt flats in the poor landlocked nation.

Bolivia has about half the world’s proven lithium reserves, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, and Morales says he’s ready to sink some $200 million into mining it.

He just needs the right partner.

MSNBC