The surprising information regarding Bolivia is essentially due to the fact that significant quantities (350 mg/l) were found in one of the biggest salt lakes in the world (Salar de Uyuni: 10,000 km²). They were also based on the fact that salt crusts (and hence interstitial brines) are repeatedly found at depth ...  this depth is unknown but in all cases is greater than 214m at the centre of Salar (the deepest well was drilled by Duke University in 2004 for paleoclimatic studies).

However, it is clear to all that a correct definition of the reserves which are really recoverable requires an in-depth analysis of the technical, economic, and environmental conditions for extracting lithium. Without a complete feasibility study of this kind, it remains very hazardous to put forward figures and at the least optimistic to consider the deposit to be the form of an inverted cone, more than 200 metres deep and 100km in diameter!

As part of a cooperation project between 1996 and 2000, the University of Liège and the Universidad Tecnica in Oruro conducted a much more comprehensive exploration of the geochemistry of the Salar de Coipasa brines, situated further north (3,000 km2, more than 200 wells going to a depth of 12m) (Lebrun et al., 2002). Such studies are indispensable as they show that the lithium content is only one very partial element of information, because of the possibility of producing other valuable salts from the brines (potassium chloride, sodium sulfate, etc.), or the presence of undesirable elements such as magnesium which can easily encourage or cripple any mining project. To date, we are far from having established analytical data on all the potentially lithiferic salt lakes in Bolivia or elsewhere. We can arrive at an idea of the potential of a few of these on the basis of Table 2, but other resources are known (Salar del Rincon, Clayton Valley, Zhabuye, etc.) and many more remain to be discovered, particularly in Asia (Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tibet ...).

Moreover, natural beds which were completely unsuspected were discovered in 2004 in the Jadar region of Serbia during an exploration for sodium borates by Rio Tinto! The Jadar deposits today report 114.6 Mt of reserves containing 1,8% Li2O and 13% B2O3.

The industrial production of lithium carbonate from brines began discretely in Clayton Valley in Nevada in 1967 and intensified when Chile also started production at the start of the 1990s. The SCL company in association with the American company Foote (today Chemetall (Rockwood)) and the Chilean company SQM are the two key actors in the Salar de Atacama. SQM, which historically emerged from the production of nitrates, rapidly positioned itself as the main world producer of lithium and iodine, and North American rock mines closed as an immediate consequence. Today the global production of lithium is 25,300 t of Li content of which 8,800 t is assured by Chile alone (Table 3). In order to avoid any confusion over production statistics, it is important to bear in mind that lithium can be marketed in different forms from the raw ore (rock or brines (Table 1)) to different lithium salts of varying degrees of purity. It is important only to compare comparable statistics. The statistics in table 3 are in tonnes of lithium content. To compare with productions expressed in tonnes of pure lithium carbonate, a factor of 5.32 has to be applied (one molecule of Li2CO3 contains 18.78% Li). Such statistics are sometimes presented as LCE-Lithium Carbonate Equivalent Units. Expressed in LCE, the market would be around 90,000 to 110,000 tonnes per year according to statistics. Many analysts estimate that Chinese production is over-valued, and believe that Chile currently owns 50% of world production.