Mexico Calls for Latin American Lithium Alliance

The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has expressed his intention to form an alliance with Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile, in order to promote mutual collaboration on lithium.

“There has been communication with the president of Bolivia (Luis Arce), he, in turn, has a relationship, like us, with the president of Argentina (Alberto Fernández), who also has lithium, and with the president of Chile (Gabriel Boric), with the purpose of creating an association to help each other mutually,” said the Mexican president during his morning press conference today.

In April, Mexico’s Congress approved a reform to the Mining Law of that country which launched the nationalization of lithium and the creation of a public body that is in charge of everything related to exploration, exploitation, and industrialization.

He pointed out that in the case of Chile and Argentina, private companies are in charge of exploiting the resource, but Mexico is still interested in collaborating in this work.

“In the case of Bolivia and Mexico, lithium is nationalized, but there are shared interests [with Chile and Argentina] and we are going to work together, we are already doing it,” said López Obrador.

In recent days, Bolivia celebrated the five-year anniversary of the state company, Yacimientos de Litio Bolivianos (YLB). It was created by the government of Evo Morales with the aim of industrializing lithium and manufacturing value-added products within the country.

On April 13, Bolivia hosted the international forum “Perspectives on Lithium from Latin America”, in which Bolivia’s Minister of Hydrocarbons and Energy, Franklin Molina, pointed out that Bolivia, Argentina, Chile and Mexico have agreed to hold an international congress of presidents this year to discuss lithium.

“Latin America is becoming a fundamental actor in the global energy market because more than half of the world’s lithium reserves are located in the countries of Bolivia, Argentina, Chile. This places us in an important geopolitical context because the lithium in our region is a key factor for the global energy transition strategies now underway,” said Molina.

Featured image: Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Bolivian President Luis Arce.

(Kawsachun News)