Chancer

Complete List of Chilean ADR Stocks

The Bolivian Minister of the Interior said (I saw on tv) that those who want Bolivia's lithium have to agree to manufacture the batteries and vehicles IN Bolivia. Bolivia has a history of really, really failing in negotiations with foreign countries and corporations with unreasonable demands that send the other side packing and performance failures. Their attitude is often like they are attempting to get even for hundreds of years of poor treatment by multinationals and foreign governments.

In addition, Bolivia's political instability causes severe disruptions for foreign companies with "just in time" inventory systems. The standard form of protest in Bolivia is to shut down nationwide transportation (trucks and airlines). If you are producing anything for export, your product can be stuck there for many weeks. The government is not very good at quickly resolving these political disputes.

At present, there is a significant Bolivian secession movement in some provinces. The government is moving to take large ranches and farms by force. The rule of law also has a horrible record in Bolivia.

If there are other choices, it is better to pass on Bolivia. I think most companies will choose to ignore them.


On Oct 26 10:51 AM Mad Hedge Fund Trader wrote:

> SQM! If we do move from a carbon to a lithium based economy, what
> are the implications? Will we all become mellow? Politicians, industrialists,
> and environmentalists who see battery powered vehicles as the wave
> of the future are overlooking the fact that 50% of the world reserves
> of lithium are found in impoverished, landlocked Bolivia. This is
> a country that, until now, was best known for killing off famous
> foreigners (Che Guevara, Butch Cassidy, and the Sundance Kid), and
> being the source of a new form of venereal disease. Lithium ion batteries
> are four times more efficient than the current generation of nickel
> cadmium ones, and are essential for electric cars to finally become
> economically viable. But now that the country finally has something
> the world wants, nationalism is rearing its ugly head. Local politicians
> see their country as the Saudi Arabia of the highly corrosive, toxic,
> reactive metal, and are already discussing ways to restrict access.
> Will La Paz become the headquarters of OLEC, the Organization of
> Lithium Exporting Countries? The only other supplies are to be found
> in Chile, Argentina, Australia, China, and Nevada. Should the US
> invade to insure supplies? Iraq worked didn’t it? The safer way for
> opportunistic investors to play this is to look at Sociedad Quimica
> Y Minera (seekingalpha.com/symbo...), Chile’s largest producer
> of lithium, which has already seen its shares nearly triple this
> year.