german federal government wants to invest billions and for the first time a german company will have direct access to the key commodity for battery cells lithium. it's been called white gold and a key resource for the twenty first century lithium used in lithium ion batteries for electric cars the world's largest reserves of the element are believed to be in the uni salt flat in bolivia now german company a.c.i. systems has formed a partnership with the bolivian state owned company y l b to extract and process it with the support of the german government. you know. if everything is going to run on batteries then we want a considerable part of the batteries used in the world to be manufactured in europe in germany and in our partner countries. livia for its part wants to develop its industry and boost employment with the public private partnership