the uyuni salt flats are four times the size of germany's state of saarland. the liquid under the salt crust contains an important material used to make batteries. in this facility, salt water evaporates, leaving behind lithium. bolivia wants to fuel its industrialization with the light metal. >> we think we have the right plan: we will process our bolivian natural resources ourselves, for the benefit of the bolivian people. we want to develop technologies to extract potassium and, especially, lithium more effectively. we have the world's largest lithium reserves but unlike at cerro rico in the past, we now want to use this to improve the living conditions of the bolivian people. >> bolivia is still in the early stages of industrialization and lacks the modern technology for extracting lithium. foreign investors and know-how are needed -- also in bolivia's only battery factory. here a pilot project has been launched with aid from china. the lithium mixture is poured onto copper foil, heated, then rolled up. that's the basis for lithium batteries. >> if we cont