Thuringia is pleased about another success in the worldwide competition: The company K-UTEC AG from Sondershausen is part of a consortium which is now entering into a strategic partnership with the Bolivian state-owned company Yacimientos de Litio Bolivianos (YLB). The partners in the alliance centering around the Baden-Württemberg company ACI Systems Alemania GmbH will cooperate closely in the future in the extraction, use and marketing of the valuable raw material lithium from Salar de Uyuni – the largest known deposit of the rare light metal in South America. K-UTEC is specialized in the exploration and development of salt deposits and the material processing of dissolved salts from salt lakes. Lithium is an elementary component of rechargeable batteries, storage systems and especially battery cells for electric vehicles. The partnership is regarded as an important contribution to meeting the lithium demand in Europe and to expanding e-mobility in Germany. The plans now include the establishment of a joint venture between YLB and ACI, the construction of a factory and a comprehensive knowledge transfer so that the extraction and marketing of the raw material also benefits the Bolivian population. The Thuringian Ministry for Economic Affairs and LEG have supported the partnership from the outset and promoted it
at the political level. In October 2018, the joint venture agreement was signed in La Paz in the presence of Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee. (hw)
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