AFP通信さんのインスタグラム写真 - (AFP通信Instagram)「AFP Photo 📷 Pablo Cozzaglio - Bolivia, with huge untapped reserves, gears up for soaring lithium demand . Over 3,600 meters above sea level on the blinding white plain of the world's largest salt flat, landlocked Bolivia is dramatically ramping up production of lithium to cope with soaring global demand for the prized electric-battery metal. . Bolivia, among the poorest countries in South America, sits on one of the world's largest lithium reserves, at the Salar de Uyuni -- or Uyuni Salt Flats -- ready to take full advantage in the coming age of the electric car. . But while it sits at the apex of South America's "lithium triangle," along with Chile and Argentina, Bolivia has not had the capacity to produce the metal on a commercial scale. . That will change when its Llipi plant comes online in 2020. The factory, guarded by the army because of the metal's value, will have an annual production capacity of 15,000 tons of lithium carbonate, project manager Marco Antonio Condoretty told AFP. . State company Yacimientos de Litio Bolivianos (YLB), established by the government of President Evo Morales in 2008 to exploit lithium in the salt flats, aims to make Bolivia the fourth-largest producer by 2021. . Morales, a leftist and former coca farmer, is counting on lithium to serve as the economic engine that lifts his country out of poverty.」9月18日 0時15分