CLEAN : Bolivia to build lithium plant in worlds largest salt flats

Bolivia has signed a contract with a German firm to design a lithium carbonate plant in the Salar de Uyuni, the world's largest salt flats. -WS of heavy machinery preparing the field for the construction of an industrial saline pool, first step to obtain lithium. - WS of a truck going through the Uyuni salar. - WS of workers building a saline pool. - WS of workers extracting samples from a pool of brine to determine its Sodium Chloride content - MS of workers operating in the potassium chloride test plant. - VAR of chemist researching the lithium chloride concentration, in the laboratory of the test plant in the Uyuni Salar, 1,670 meters above sea level. - WS of the plant from above. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION - The general manager of Bolivia's state-owned Empresa de Recursos Evaporiticos, Alberto Echazú, signed the contract with German firm K-Utec AG Salt Technologies on Sunday, August 16. K-Utec was represented by Henrich Aloysius MArx - President Evo Morales was present at the signing - The firm will design the lithuim carbonate plant, whose construction will cost just over $4 million - The plant will be located in the Salar de Uyuni in the southwest, the world's largest salt flat at 10,000 square kilometres - The flats contain 100 million tonnes of the mineral, according to official figures - Bolivia inaugurated $19-million pilot plant in 2013 - Lithium carbonate is a basic ingredient of lithium cathodes, which are used in cellphone batteries. - The plant could also produce magnesium sulphate and potassium sulphate at a later stage - It could generate 1,000 jobs, according to K-Utec. (Footage by AFPTV via Getty Images)