Regional focus Water wars
Lithium is the mineral of our century. Crucial to the batteries that power some of the world’s most basic – and exciting – technologies, it has the potential to revolutionise how we live and work. At any rate, it’s already made many people rich – including the Chilean exchequer. Yet South America’s lithium boom comes at a price. Using countless litres of precious water, the industry is hurting local people and destabilising one of the most delicate ecosystems on the planet. But there is hope. Through a mixture of political pressure and new technology, Chile’s lithium miners are fi nally cleaning up their act. Andrea Valentino talks to experts across the country’s industry to fi nd out more.
hen they first arrived, back when Henry VIII ruled England and the Habsburgs ruled the world, Europeans were ruined by the Atacama. Expecting to find treasure – just like his predecessors against the Incas and Aztecs – Diego de Almagro instead nearly died there. During the day, the conquistador and his soldiers shielded from 50°C temperatures by resting under the thin leaves of tamarugo trees. At night they walked, hoping to uncover El Dorado amid the sands. They were left disappointed. When, in 1537, de Almagro and his men finally limped back to the Spanish colonial capital at Cusco, their clothes were supposedly so weatherbeaten that the explorers were referred to as ‘roto’ – torn. It’s a nickname Peruvians have used for their Chilean neighbours ever since.
W
How things have changed. Long a wasteland at the very tip of Chile, the Atacama now represents the
centre of the country’s economy. The transformation can be summarised in a single word: lithium. The desert, both in Chile and across the border in Bolivia and Argentina, contains 70% of the world’s supply. Without it our mobile phones, our laptops, our digital cameras and our Teslas would all be impossible. Yet, if lithium is making Chile and its mining firms wildly wealthy – accounting for almost 10% of its GDP, nearly half of its exports and one-third of foreign direct investment – there is also a cost. Native to the Atacama for centuries before de Almagro even knew Chile existed, the indigenous people of the desert have always relied on water to grow their crops and tend their livestock. But over recent decades, this precious resource has been disappearing – thanks in part to the very lithium that’s filled Chile’s coffers. Along the way, it’s threatened ancient ways of life, dragged multinationals to court
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World Mining Frontiers /
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