Center for a New American Security

Beneath Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni salt flats lies the world’s largest reserve of lithium, constituting close to fifty percent of global supply. Often a destination for tourists, the salt flats might see an influx of commercial visitors in the years to come as investors look to process the highly conductive mineral into efficient batteries, like the ones used in hybrid-electric cars. Bolivia’s unstable and often uncooperative regime, however, may make lithium extraction difficult, reminding us that some solutions to our energy security may involve swapping one resource dependency – Middle Eastern oil – for another – Bolivian lithium.

Photo: Salt piles dot the landscape of Salar de Uyuni, a resource-rich Andeans plateau in Bolivia. Courtesy of flickr user Jessie Reeder.

John Lee is a former Joseph S. Nye, Jr. Researcher at the Center for a New American Security.