🪨 Lithium

Origin & Location

• Primary source(s):

  • Bolivia: Salar de Uyuni
  • Chile: Salar de Atacama
  • Argentina: Salinas Grandes, Hombre Muerto

• Geological context:
  Found in salt flats (salars) where lithium-rich brine lies beneath the surface. These form in high-altitude basins in arid zones, where volcanic minerals weather into groundwater and get trapped.

Uses

Uses may be industrial, cultural, nutritional, etc.

• Used in:

  • Lithium-ion batteries (phones, laptops, EVs)
  • Energy storage systems for renewables (solar/wind)
  • Aerospace alloys, medications (e.g., bipolar disorder treatment)

• Global demand drivers:

  • Surging electric vehicle and solar/wind adoption
  • Push for net-zero carbon economies
  • Strategic mineral classification by USA, EU, China

🗺️ Story of Discovery & Exploitation

• Initial discovery:
  Indigenous communities in the Andes have known the salars for centuries, but Western interest surged in the 20th century. Scientific identification of lithium-rich brines began around the 1970s.

• Colonial/modern extraction:
  Unlike silver or gold, lithium wasn’t extracted during colonization. But modern extractivism is neo-colonial: foreign companies (especially U.S., Australian, Chinese) dominate operations and profits.

• Modern situation:

  • In Bolivia, state-owned YLB has struggled with foreign partnerships and infrastructure.
  • Chile allows private firms like SQM and Albemarle to mine under tight regulation.
  • Argentina has opened its lithium to massive foreign investment, often bypassing Indigenous consent.

⛏️ Extraction Requirements

• Mining method(s):

  • Brine extraction: drill wells, pump saltwater to evaporation pools, isolate lithium over months

• Environmental cost:

  • Evaporation mining uses 2 million liters of water per ton of lithium
  • Causes aquifer depletion in already dry regions
  • Alters ecosystems critical to flamingos and traditional agriculture

• Human cost:

  • Indigenous resistance ignored or suppressed
  • Lack of free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC)
  • Little to no economic return for local communities

Sources & Further Reading

• The Lithium Triangle: South America’s Copper Alternative
• USGS: Lithium Statistics
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium
• https://sciencenotes.org/lithium-facts/
• Lithium: Latin America’s Precious White Gold in Dispute