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(Add details about financing, comments from Bolivian officials)
By Daniel Ramos
LA PAZ, Feb 6 (Reuters) – Bolivia has selected a Chinese consortium as a strategic partner for new $ 2.3 billion lithium projects, the Chinese government said on Wednesday, giving China a potential base in huge unexploited reserves of the precious metal of the electric battery.
The Chinese group Xinhua TBEA Group Co Ltd will hold 49% stake in a joint venture with the Bolivian lithium company YLB, the Bolivian company announced.
Together, the two companies will seek to produce lithium and other materials from the salt works of Coipasa and Pastos Grandes.
Bolivia estimates that project development will cost at least $ 2.3 billion. The Chinese firm will provide the initial investment and YLB will pay its share for future lithium production, YLB Executive Director Juan Carlos Montenegro told the phone.
Bolivia has some of the largest lithium reserves in the world – an essential component of batteries that power electric cars – but has not yet produced the metal on a commercial scale.
Preliminary agreement gives Beijing another chance to lock out access to Bolivian lithium after German company ACI Systems GmbH was chosen last year as a partner for the country's largest lithium deposit in Uyuni salt works .
Xinjiang TBEA beat six rivals who were also looking to partner with Bolivia on Coipasa and Pastos Grandes, including ACI, Uranium One – a subsidiary of the Russian nuclear company Rosatom – and the Irish company Clontarf Energy Plc.
"Why China? There is a guaranteed market in China for the production of batteries, "said Bolivian President Evo Morales, during a keynote address on television at a signing ceremony in the mountainous city of в # <в # <. Oruro.
China, the world's largest lithium consumer, will need 800,000 tons of metal a year by 2025 to support its burgeoning electric car industry, said China's ambbadador to Bolivia Liang Yu. describing this agreement as historical.
There is not yet an estimate of the amount of lithium Coipasa and Pastos Grandes. Bolivia announced last month that a new study had revealed that Uyuni would probably have at least 21 million tons of lithium, more than double of a previous estimate.
Despite its abundant supplies and growing global demand for this metal, Bolivia's plans to industrialize its lithium have been delayed several times.
The next steps on Coipasa and Pastos Grandes will be to conduct feasibility studies, YLB said.
"This investment will not happen in a year. It's a long, multi-year process, "said Luis Alberto Echazu, Bolivian Deputy Minister of High Energy Technologies.
YLB added that she could partner with Xinjiang TBEA for a lithium battery factory in China.
Report by Daniel Ramos, additional report and writing of
Mitra Taj, edited by Rosalba O & # 39; Brien
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