Lithium is the key ingredient for the batteries fuelling the world’s electric car and smartphone revolution. Market analysts speculate that by the mid-2020s, lithium supply will be straining to keep up with demand from auto and mobile device manufacturers. It’s being called the “gold of the 21st century.”

Bolivia’s largely untapped Salar de Uyuni salt flats, located high in the Andes, are estimated to contain between 25 and 45 per cent of the planet’s known reserves. The government of Evo Morales has been working to create a publicly owned lithium industry to help diversify his country’s economy and raise more of its people out of poverty.

Efforts to get at the metal by multinational mining companies from the US, Canada, South Korea and others have so far largely faltered. A joint venture with a German company was cancelled by the Bolivian government last week over concerns that not enough benefit would go to the indigenous people who live near Uyuni. Chinese and Russian firms have been among the few that have inked deals.