The mission was quixotic for a small Texas energy start-up: Beat out Chinese and Russian industrial giants in unlocking mineral resources that could one day power tens of millions of electric vehicles.
In August, a team from Austin traveled to LA to meet with local and national leaders at a government lithium complex to convince them that EnergyX had a technology that would fulfill the potential of the country to be a global green-energy power. The conference they were going to attend was canceled and the location was blocked by security guards.
The Salar de Uyuni, a sea of brine high in the Andes, is rich in several minerals and is needed in batteries used in electric cars and on the power grid.
It was surrounded by rusty equipment, empty production ponds and pumps that were uncoupled from pipes. It had nothing but promise to EnergyX's chief executive.
He promised that this was the new Saudi Arabia.
The Salar de Uyuni is 4,000 square miles of salt flats and is revered by the Indigenous Quechua people. The site is pure white beauty for Mr. Egan.
With a quarter of the world's known lithium, this nation of 12 million people could be in a position to win the fight against climate change.
Four companies from China and one from Russia are competing to establish pilot lithium projects in the country, which has a friendlier relationship with the United States.
The clean energy revolution is creating a wave of entrepreneurs who want to ride a new boom, vaulting themselves into the intersection of geopolitics and climate change. Some are well-known names like Mr. Musk and others are strivers looking for their first break in mineral-rich places like the Democratic Republic of Congo and the South Pacific.
Mr. Egan is determined to win. One of the companies from the United States is one of the eight that are vying to develop the country's lithium reserves.
The flow of electrical currents is enabled by the basic component of batteries, lithium. The metal is light, long life, large storage capacity, and easy to use, which makes it a good choice for power generation in cars and batteries for renewable energy. The price of lithium compounds is up over 200 percent this year.
Mr. Egan had never worked in the energy industry before starting EnergyX. With his hair slicked back and frequently unshaven, he projects youthful exuberance and self-confidence.
He established a book club at his company and assigned a biography of Thomas Edison as the first offering to send a message to his colleagues. The plants were tried to produce domestic rubber.
The clean energy revolution has become a cycle of exploitation and greed. The quest for a prized metal is at the center of it.
There is a lot that Mr. Egan can't control in this country.
The Movement for Socialism is led by the former President of the country, who tried to bring the country closer to China before he was forced from power two years ago.
Luis Arce is the current president and he was Mr. Morales's economy minister. He faces challenges from local movements that object to the socialist government and are wary of foreign interests because they see them as exploiters of the country's mineral wealth going back to the 17th century.
Two years ago, protests spread around the country after a deal between Mr. Morales and a German company. Mr. Morales was forced to scrap his contract a week before he left the country.
The leader of the protests demanded a tripling of royalties for Potos Province and local involvement in ownership of lithium enterprises. He said that his demands had not changed, and that his opposition to the ruling socialists remained steadfast.
He said that the province would mobilize as soon as they chose the foreign companies. The government is playing with fire.
In August, about 80 protesters took over two roads, blocking Mr. Arce from visiting government facilities and demanding that he fire the new head of the state-owned lithium company. The conference was canceled because of the protest.
Even though she supports the government,Rosa Belen Julaca joined the protest and said we need asphalt roads and textile factories. We will keep blocking the roads if they don't listen to us.
Government officials went to calm the situation.
President Biden's goal of getting half of new cars sold in the United States to be battery-free by the year 2030 is being helped by an increase in the production of Bolivianlithium.
Anna Shpitsberg, the U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for energy transformation, said that the amount of lithium we need in any of our climate goals is incredible. Everyone is trying to build up their supply chains.
Washington has little sway over the leaders of Bolivia, who have long disagreed with the American approach to drug policy. That may explain why some energy executives don't think it's worth the risk.
Robert Mintak, the chief executive of Standard Lithium, a publicly traded mining company based in British Columbia, said that there had been 30 years of projects in Bolivia with almost nothing to show for them. There is no infrastructure, no work force, no political risk, and no intellectual property protection in the country. I would choose someplace else that was safer as a developer.
The odds are different for Mr. Egan.
Mr. Egan has made it this far. He and a friend traveled to South America in the year 2018, and he learned about the battery.
A guide told them that they were standing on the world's largest lithium reserve when they got to the salt flats. I need to be involved, but I don't know how I'm going to do it.
He tried his hand at sports and music agents and ran an investment fund. He invested $9 a share in the company in 2013; it is now around $1,000. He wouldn't say how many shares he had bought or how many he still had.
He felt that he wasn't achieving much. Before Mr. Egan traveled to South America, his father, Michael, the founder of Alamo Rent A Car, advised him to make two lists of his five biggest passions and five industries he thought would grow the fastest. Both lists had renewable energy on them.
Mr. Egan was reading on the subject. The missing link to make the ponds more productive and profitable was decided on by him. He came across a paper written by a professor at the University of Texas at Austin and some scientists in Australia about a new type of membranes that could be used to separate and purify brines and rocks.
He traveled to Austin and Australia.
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He called it the new Saudi Arabia.
The two were not normal. He was the first person in his family to graduate from high school, and was born into poverty in rural North Carolina. Mr. Egan was wealthy in Florida. He loved chemistry and handling pesticides on his family's apple farm. Mr. Egan said his father taught him business skills at the dinner table.
Mr. Egan went back and forth to Bolivia to sell his technology, but he didn't make much progress. He said that all the people were tied behind their backs because they were scared to offend the top people.
Diego von Vacano, a political science professor at Texas A&M University and an informal adviser to Mr. Arce, contacted Dr. The Texas A&M professor became Mr. Egan's bridge to Bolivia.
Mr. Egan attended the inauguration after Mr. Arce won. Mr. Egan made important connections in the new administration.
He was unable to get a meeting with the new president. He was able to track down Mr. Arce when he was in Santa Cruz. Mr. Egan finally got to see the president eat in the fish market.
He was stopped by Dr. von Vacano as he approached the leader. Mr. Arce was eating with a congressman. Mr. Egan walked away from the scene. He was not done trying after returning home.
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The conference that Mr. Egan and his team were going to attend was canceled.
After the conference was canceled, Mr. Egan and his team went to La Paz, the seat of government, to try to get in touch with top Energy Ministry officials.
There were obstacles.
When they met with Carlos Humberto Ramos, the head of the state lithium company, they found that he had little understanding of EnergyX's technology.
The team was told by Mr. Ramos that an initial agreement approving EnergyX's project was almost done and that it could visit the lithium complex.
The arrangement was given the go-ahead by lvaro Arnez, a deputy energy minister. He was a part of the celebration at the La Paz restaurant over plates of dried catfish and roast pork with pear kimchi.
The technicians told Mr. Egan to wait until the test results came in before moving forward with the pilot project. He toured the facilities before other companies.
The energy minister said in an interview that there is room for Americans, Russians, Chinese, Japanese, whoever wants to invest as long as they respect our sovereignty.
China has advantages. Over the last three years, it has made over $4 billion in investments in South America and Mexico. Chinese banks give low-interest loans to Chinese mining and construction companies operating in other countries to help them with their plans to dominate industries of the future.
Russian officials said that President Putin has spoken with Mr. Arce at least twice.
Mr. Egan said he was not getting any help from the U.S. government. American officials hope to gently press for a level playing field.
The long game has paid off for Mr. Egan. In October he shipped a container to Bolivia with pumps, valves, tanks and membranes to separate brine and lithium from each other. The pilot may be able to lead to a commercial project.
The government has named eight companies to carry out pilots, including one small American company, and 20 other companies to compete for the work.
All of the eight competitors from Argentina will be competing for attention and resources from the government in La Paz in the months to come before any can be approved to move toward commercial operations.
We need to scale it up and do a demonstration. We need to go commercial. This is just the first day.
