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Sunset - Salar de Uyuni
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Although the Salar de Uyuni is Bolivia’s largest salt flats, the country has numerous other evaporite basins of major economic interest. Most of these salt flats are not being used for production.
Although mining concessions have been awarded for some basins, the vast majority of the salt flats are currently state-owned reserves under the legal stewardship of COMIBOL.
We will now go on to provide a brief description of the country’s different salt flats:
In addition, there are several lakes that are also classified as evaporite basins, as crystallized salt deposits build up at the lakeside or at the bottom of the lake. The lakes include Laguna Cañapa containing sodium sulphate (Na2SO4), Kachi Laguna containing sodium carbonate (Na2CO3), Laguna Colorada containing sodium sulphate, Collpa Laguna containing sodium carbonate, and so on.
The only lake currently being used for production is Collpa Laguna, under a COMIBOL concession awarded to the San José Cooperative. Using rudimentary techniques, the cooperative produces trona with a 40% sodium carbonate (Na2CO3) and 4% sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) content.
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