jun 1, 2012 - Massive protests in Bolivia, Potosi against a German-affiliated lithium mining joint venture for use in E-car batteries

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Massive protests have erupted in Bolivia against a German-affiliated lithium mining joint venture for use in E-car batteries. The consortium, in which the German ACI medium-sized enterprise is participating, is being accused of illegally withholding from the communities surrounding the sites of the lithium deposits in Bolivia's highlands, their share of the export returns. Doubts are growing about whether the joint venture ("YLB ACISA E.M.") will actually construct a complete lithium value chain, all the way to the finished car battery, in Bolivia, as President Evo Morales' government had originally demanded. The German project partners' claims to patent rights and the control of the financial flow are nurturing additional suspicion toward the medium-size enterprise from Baden Wurttemberg. The company had been given massive support at the federal level, to prevail in the competition against consortiums from China, Russia and the USA.

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