Bolivia PL-157 Proyecto de Ley de Recursos Evaporíticos — formal congressional submission of national evaporites-and-lithium bill

Mechanism

Bolivia PL-157 (titled Ley de Recursos Evaporíticos y del Litio in its formal congressional form) is the executive bill submitted by President Rodrigo Paz to the Cámara de Diputados in February 2026. It translates the Ministerio de Hidrocarburos y Energías (MHE) December 2025 framework document into a draft statute with numbered articles, a formal bill number (PL-157-2025-2026), and a congressional review process.

The core legislative architecture:

1. Concession model — Replaces the Ley 928 (1992/2017) exclusive YLB state-monopoly with a concession regime that can be awarded to: (a) private capital acting independently, or (b) YLB in mixed JV alliances with private partners. This is the structural departure that previous Arce-era policy blocked: private operators can now hold and operate concessions in their own name without mandatory YLB majority.

2. Departmental royalty-sharing — Explicit royalty percentages allocated to Potosí, Oruro, and other salt-flat departments; a provision aimed at resolving the historical conflict between the national state and lithium-producing departments over revenue distribution.

3. Clear investment rules — The bill provides the statutory anchor for tax-stability guarantees (20-year horizon), concession-term clarity, and an international bidding architecture — the elements that were absent from the Ley 928 framework and that caused the YLB–Uranium One and YLB–Hong Kong CBC contracts to stall in Congress without a ratification vehicle.

Legislative status (as of June 2026): The Comisión de Energía e Hidrocarburos approved the bill on 26 March 2026 and referred it to four executive ministries (Hidrocarburos y Energías, Economía, Justicia, and Medio Ambiente) for analysis before returning it to plenary. A national lithium summit was scheduled for May 2026 to build social consensus before plenary vote. Enactment timeline remains uncertain; the June 2026 target has slipped.

Constitutional challenge: A civil-society coalition including indigenous and environmental organisations published a formal pronouncement in March 2026 arguing that PL-157 violates Bolivia's Political Constitution (CPE) by altering the structure of communal and indigenous territorial property rights over the salares. This is the principal legislative-risk vector.

Downstream implications

• YLB-Uranium One and YLB-Hong Kong CBC contracts — both remain in legislative limbo

pending PL-157 plenary passage; the bill provides the statutory ratification vehicle.

• International tender — if enacted, opens Bolivia's ~22 Mt identified lithium reserve

(Salar de Uyuni + Coipasa + Pastos Grandes) to competitive tender; directly competes with Argentina RIGI lithium pipeline (~USD 30bn committed) and Chile's Codelco-SQM JV architecture.

• DLE technology licensors — explicit private-capital pathway + 20-year tax stability makes

Uyuni viable for EnergyX, Lilac Solutions, and International Battery Metals seeking project access that was legally unavailable under Ley 928.

• LatAm lithium triangle — Bolivia enacting PL-157 would mean all three major lithium-triangle

sovereigns (Chile, Argentina, Bolivia) have moved away from pure state-monopoly toward mixed-capital models in the 2023-2026 window.

• Social-consensus risk — Potosí and Oruro departments have historically opposed large-scale

salar industrialisation; the CPE constitutional challenge adds a judicial-block risk that could delay or invalidate the concession framework.

Open questions

• Plenary vote timing — unclear whether PL-157 will reach plenary before the July 2026

recess; if not, it carries over to the 2026-2027 legislative session.

• Ministry analysis outcomes — the four ministries' comments may require substantive

amendments before plenary; no timeline has been disclosed.

• Constitutional court risk — if enacted, the CPE challenge by civil-society groups could

trigger a Constitutional Tribunal review that suspends or voids the concession provisions.

• Promulgation — check gacetaoficialdebolivia.gob.bo for promulgation if enacted; that

event would justify upgrading severity to 3 and filing an AMENDMENT.