Rosatom's project for the development of a lithium deposit in Argentina has been terminated. According to "Izvestia", citing Russian Ambassador to Buenos Aires Dmitry Feoktistov, bilateral cooperation in peaceful atomic energy and lithium projects has effectively stopped after President Javier Milei came to power, who has set a course for rapprochement with the United States.

This refers to the Tolillar project in Salta province, where Rosatom's subsidiary Uranium One planned in 2021 to invest $30 million in exchange for a 15% stake in the project of Canadian Alpha Lithium Corporation. However, the Canadian side terminated the agreement after the introduction of anti-Russian sanctions in 2022. Currently, the deposit is being developed by the operator of the Argentine concern Techint.

Having lost Argentina, Rosatom focused its efforts on projects in Bolivia. However, implementation there also faced difficulties: in November 2025, the center-right Rodrigo Paz Pereira came to power, who set a course for strengthening relations with the United States and announced his intention to revise the terms of lithium contracts with Russia and China.

As a "plan B", Rosatom is relying on domestic sources, despite the fact that industrial-scale lithium mining has been suspended since the 1990s. In March 2026, a joint venture with Nornickel – "Polyarny Lithium" – began pilot industrial mining at the Kolmozersky deposit in the Murmansk region. The ore reserves here will last for approximately 40 years, and by 2030, the enterprise plans to reach its design capacity, processing about 2 million tons of ore annually.

The extracted lithium will primarily go to Rosatom's gigafactories for battery production in the Kaliningrad region and Moscow, which are expected to start operating in 2026. Their total capacity will be able to provide batteries for up to 100,000 electric vehicles annually.