report

Mining in Bolivia Lithium rush in the Andes

As of: 06/20/2021 4:40 p.m.

The largest lithium deposits on earth are believed to be under the Uyuni salt lake in Bolivia. The planned dismantling of the metal, which is important for batteries, raises hopes, but is controversial because of the high water consumption.

By Anne Herrberg, ARD Studio Buenos Aires, and Matthias Ebert, ARD studio Rio de Janeiro

It lies dazzling white between the majestic peaks of the Bolivian Andes, an area nine times the size of Berlin: the Uyuni salt lake. Hidden underneath is a treasure: white gold, lithium, or as Panfilo Huayllas, Mayor of Rio Grande says: “our future”. He demands: “All communities around the salt lake and all Bolivians must benefit from the lithium that is under this salt crust.

Lithium, the lightest metal on earth, is required for lithium-ion batteries. They are not only found in cell phones and laptops, but also in electric cars. Without lithium there is no e-mobility – and nowhere in the world are more reserves believed than here, on the roof of the Andes.

Bolivia doesn’t just want to be a supplier of raw materials

But Bolivia wants to be more than just a supplier of raw materials. “We local residents have to share in the profits, because we will feel the effects of lithium industrialization here in Rio Grande,” says Mayor Huayllas.

Lithium is said to be a driver for Bolivia’s industrialization. The plan is to build the batteries yourself. Ex-President Evo Morales was once looking for partners for this project – and found them in a German medium-sized company: ACISA from Zimmer ob Rottweil on the edge of the Black Forest. It was a deal of the century. But it burst in 2019 , after the election overshadowed by allegations of fraud and Morales’ flight into exile. Since then, the German-Bolivian project has been on hold.

The lithium deal negotiated by ex-President Morales collapsed in 2019. Image: AFP

Not everyone is enthusiastic about it anyway. Luis Machaca is the spokesman for a citizens’ initiative that opposes the project. “The Germans wanted to mine our raw material behind our backs, with a contract for 70 years,” he says. “They may be a good partner, but they have neither the technical means nor the technology.”

Lithium mining uses up a lot of precious water

What does mining mean for people, but also for the sensitive ecosystem? It is about the most precious commodity on the roof of the Andes: water.

A look across the border into the Atacama Desert to Chile: SQM has been mining lithium there for 25 years. The brine is pumped up from 40 meters, then evaporates in basins over months until a lithium-containing slag remains. It is a very water-intensive process, of all places in one of the driest regions in the world, says the Chilean biologist Cristina Dorador. “We can see from satellite images over the past 20 years that the soil has lost moisture,” she says. At the same time, the ground is heating up and the vegetation is receding. “These changes are directly related to lithium production over the past 20 years.”

Water protection should be improved

The company promises to make mining more sustainable. In Chile’s new constitution, on which the biologist Dorador will also be co-writing, environmental and water protection should be a top priority. Local residents like Cristian Toroca remain skeptical. “The company had not previously intended to involve local residents, that bothers us about this group,” he says. “They’re pulling this mineral out of the ground to sell in Europe as a clean product, but that’s a lie.”

In Bolivia it is still unclear who will be awarded the contract: the Germans are competing with Chinese and US companies. Panfilo Huayllas continues to hope that the white gold will bring prosperity to his community. But he too says: not at any price. “Alternative ways of supplying lithium production with water in the future must be found. If they only tap our wells, we will ruin the future of our children.”

Corona vaccine study Novavax is 90 percent effective

Status: 14.06.2021 2:21 p.m. According to preliminary study data, the corona vaccine from the US pharmaceutical manufacturer Novavax is safe and highly effective – even with virus variants. The product raises great hopes, especially in developing countries. According to the US pharmaceutical company, the Novavax corona vaccine protects well against the virus and its variants. The company said that the vaccine was around 90 percent effective and, according to preliminary data from a study, safe. The vaccine effectiveness study involved nearly 30,000 people in the United States and Mexico. Two-thirds of them received two doses of the vaccine three weeks apart, all others received placebos. A total of 77 people were infected with the coronavirus, 14 of them in the group of those who were vaccinated. Of the participants who received the drug, none developed severe or moderate symptoms, while there were 14 in the comparison group without vaccination.

background 06/14/2021

No cases of blood clots or heart problems

The vaccine was similarly effective against several variants of the coronavirus, including the alpha variant first discovered in the UK, as well as in high-risk groups such as the elderly and people with pre-existing conditions. The side effects were similar to those of other vaccines and mainly concerned pain at the injection site. There have been no reports of blood clots or heart problems, said Novavax boss Stanley Erck. Novavax plans to publish the results in a medical journal where they will be reviewed by independent experts.

Vaccine important for developing countries

The company said that applications for approval would be submitted in the USA and Europe, among others, by the end of September. Until then, a production of 100 million cans per month is possible. Novavax’s vaccine is easy to transport and store, which is why it is expected to play an important role in vaccination campaigns in developing countries. “Many of our first doses will go to low- and middle-income countries, and that was the goal from the start,” said Erck. Novavax’s vaccine works in a similar way to flu vaccines. It is made with laboratory-grown copies of the spike protein that envelops the coronavirus. The immune system reacts to the proteins in the vaccine and is thus prepared when it is actually confronted with the virus. Other vaccines that are widely used today contain the genetic instructions for the body to make its own spike protein.

02.03.2021

I am Nguyen Thi Lien, retired female soldier with the rank of major. Many people are supposed to settle in old age at this time, but for me this is the time to fulfill my dream of owning a farm that I have cherished for a long time. The predestination of farming came to me very casually. Once I accidentally saw the worm raising techniques of expert Nguyen Lan Hung and read the document translated by former Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Cong Tan, I decided to explore the model of raising earthworms. I am more and more passionate about this job. The reality of raising earthworms is quite simple. Worms feed are mainly agricultural by-products such as buffalo, cow, pig, and chicken manure … Worms on the farm are processed in many forms such as: dried worms, worms epidemic, earthworms, and powdered worms. Dried cinnamon, frozen earthworms … Especially, earthworms are also very effective food and medicine. To find the complete wormwood recipe, I had to learn from a lot of documents. In which, there is a remedy of Mr. Nguyen An Dinh, the son of Mr. Nguyen An Ninh, a famous revolutionary in the early twentieth century. Mr. Dinh also used earthworms, but they are earthworms (geese) to cure dengue fever during the war years in the country. After a period of about 45 days, I proceed to harvest the worms. When harvested, just pick up cow dung on a canvas and leave it outdoors where there is a lot of light, worms will go down because they like the dark. The worms are nearly the size of chopsticks, about 20 cm long, and washed away. Worms are treated by boiling method and brought into the oven with green beans to shrink. Drying takes 15 to 16 hours. The process of treating fresh worms to this stage, usually takes about 2 days. One of the most important worms that I created was to put in a pot of gold stars, bring it down and crush it by hand. After crushed earthworms, they will be canned and preserved. All steps are done by myself and by the people. In particular, the box will have a barcode, buyers can check the origin and complete information of the product. In fact, my goal is not to make money from earthworms because the money earned from selling food worms and medicinal worms is just enough to pay and buy by-products as food for them. The main income of the farm today is still raising pigs, raising chickens with earthworms with good quality and clean meat. Pigs raised by earthworms have very good resistance, less disease and the smell of meat is very delicious and delicious. Each month I feed the clean food stores in Hanoi about 50-60 pigs. The total income of the whole farm from selling earthworms, pork, and chickens is about 400-500 million / month. I also let pigs listen to French music, the music with a very wonderful, soothing, deep melody … will help the pigs relieve stress effectively and improve the quality of meat. Currently, clean pork from my farm is present at a number of big chains and supermarkets in Hanoi.

Check the humidity at the foot of the forest of U Minh National Park in the morning of April 15.

At noon April 15, the sudden rain lasted about 10:30 a.m. to 13 p.m., helping to cool down the hot sun on the forest stands of U Minh low-cut cajuput forest.

It is also a rare unseasonal rain from the beginning of the dry season 2020-2021 up to now in Ca Mau. Rain lowers the hot summer noon heat, increases humidity and adds a significant amount of water to canals and ditches in the forest stand of Ca Mau Melaleuca forest. But according to the force that is directly in charge of the “fire watch” task in the dry season, the off-season rain often has lightning that causes the forest fire, but it is very difficult to fight the fire and extinguish the fire, because the tree trunk and leaves have been cleared of dust.

The possibility of lightning causing fire is also a concern of the Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the People’s Council of Ca Mau province Nguyen Tien Hai, during a visit to the inspection of forest fire prevention and fighting (FPF) in the forest stand of U Minh Ha Melaleuca forest. on the morning of April 15.

Talking with forest owners in U Minh, Provincial Party Secretary cited many fires caused by lightning at the beginning of the rainy season. Therefore, the forest owners must not ignore and lose their guard against the early rains of the season. “Fire is caused by humans, we can be prevented by good control, but due to lightning, we can only detect it in time to extinguish, prevent big fires from happening” – Secretary of the Ca Mau Provincial Party Committee noted and requested the ” forest owners ”need to be more professional in forest management and protection. Specifically, in 2022, at all costs, the forest management and protection units in U Minh must install specialized cameras (magic eyes), and at the same time purchase unmanned aerial vehicles for monitoring and management. forest management and protection, as well as forest fire prevention and fighting.

Out-of-season rain increases the risk of fire in the stand of Ca Mau Melaleuca forest.

Up to the present time, the entire forest stand of Ca Mau Melaleuca forest has been drought, the risk of forest fire at any time. Among them, level IV fire alarms (dangerous level) are more than 19,480 ha and grade V (extremely dangerous level) is nearly 8,000 ha, accounting for more than 61% of the total area of ​​the stand.

Areas with level 5 fire alarm forests are concentrated in: The Melaleuca forest part of U Minh Ha Forestry Company Limited; U Minh Ha National Park; Ca Mau Agricultural Seed Center; The wartime headquarters of the Military Command of Ca Mau province; forest stand in the communes of Nguyen Phich, Khanh An, Khanh Lam, Khanh Thuan … of U Minh district. The most worrying of forest owners is that the heat continues to be fierce, causing water under canals to evaporate faster, and there is a possibility that there will be a shortage of fire fighting water if a big fire occurs in some areas of the forest stand of Ca Mau Melaleuca forest.