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President Evo Morales admits that he has been unable to find a foreign partner to help manufacture lithium batteries. So, he says, Bolivia will do it itself, investing about $900 million and starting production in 2014.
But so far, the nation has not even moved out of the pilot phase of lithium production.
Bolivia holds the largest known reserves of lithium, the world's lightest metal used for batteries in cell phones, laptops and other electronics and autos.
Morales' talks so far with Bollore of France, Sumitomo and Mitsubishi of Japan and LG of Korea as well as Iran have been fruitless.
"They only want to invest to buy lithium carbonate," Morales reports, referring to the compound used in batteries. But "we need partners for the industrialization of lithium batteries in Bolivia."
