A new report on the impact of lithium mining in South America’s lithium triangle has found that methods used by companies in the rush to extract the mineral in Chile’s Salar de Atacama has led to an “irreversible” and “unrecoverable” loss of water. Nearby Indigenous Colla peoples, whose land has not yet been exploited, told Mongabay that without the implementation of more sustainable mining methods, they will likely face the same problems neighboring communities have experienced over the last four decades, such as a loss of vegetation cover and the disappearance of lagoons.

Since the 1980s, lithium mining has been conducted in Salar de Atacama, a salt flat in Chile’s Antofagasta region, located within the traditional territory of the Lickanantay (Atacameño) Indigenous peoples. The report was published by the Citizen Observatory of Chile (OC), Argentina’s Center for Legal and Social Studies, the Postgraduate Program in Development Sciences of the Higher University of San Andrés in Bolivia and the International Federation for Human Rights.

“The information we gathered in our study shows that the impact of lithium mining on water is enormous,” said José Aylwin, a lawyer, coordinator of the OC Globalization and Human Rights Program and lead author of the report. “It is estimated that the production of 1 ton of lithium carbonate, based on the technology currently used in the Atacama Salt Flat, requires, on average, the evaporation of half a million liters [132,000 gallons] of brine water.”

A recent study found that lithium mining in the Salar de Atacama is causing the salt flat to sink at a rate of 1-2 centimeters (about 0.4 to 0.8 inches) per year. Groundwater levels have fallen by more than 10 meters (33 feet) in the last 15 years, the study found.

Mining has also caused a significant loss of vegetation cover in areas where Indigenous peoples practice agricultural activities, and it has also led to the disappearance of lagoons, which are important for communities and local wildlife, including vicuñas (Lama vicugna) and the Andean flamingo (Phoenicoparrus andinus), according to the new report.

The damage is primarily driven by the extraction methods used. This involves pumping saline water or lithium-rich brine to the surface and allowing it to evaporate in open pools, taking advantage of the high solar radiation of the area’s hyperarid desert ecosystem. According to the report, almost all of the water contained in the brine evaporates, producing an “irreversible” and “unrecoverable” loss of large volumes of water from the aquifer.

“The rapid growth of lithium mining in the Andean salt flats risks trading one environmental crisis for another,” Cat Rainsford, a transition minerals investigator for Global Witness, who was not involved in the report, told Mongabay via email. “While the world must urgently move away from fossil fuels, this cannot come at the expense of fragile ecosystems and Indigenous communities.”

Chile’s National Geology and Mining Service and its Ministry of Environment did not respond to Mongabay’s requests for comment by the time of publication.

New technologies

While the majority of mining has taken place on the Lickanantay Indigenous territory in recent years, companies have shown an interest in mining on the traditional lands of the Colla peoples in Salar de Maricunga, a salt flat located farther south in the Atacama region, near the border with Argentina. The area encompasses the Nevado Tres Cruces National Park and Ramsar-listed wetlands, such as the Laguna Santa Rosa, which researchers said will be under great pressure once mining companies begin operations at the Salar de Maricunga.

Ercilia Araya, president of the Pai-Ote community, told Mongabay via WhatsApp that because Maricunga is a main source of water for the community, the Pai-Ote are concerned about the impact of lithium mining on their right to water.

Ariel León, the community’s adviser, said that the Pai-Ote, who still lack a legal title to their land, have little control over what projects are approved. Therefore, she told Mongabay, it is important that they engage with the companies to try to push for mining methods that have less of an impact on their water supply and the environment.

Across the lithium triangle, which includes the high Andean salt flats of Argentina, Bolivia and Chile, where more than half of the world’s lithium reserves have been identified so far, companies and governments are attempting to introduce new methods to extract lithium. One such method is direct lithium extraction (DLE) technologies, which allow lithium to be extracted directly from brine using chemicals, therefore avoiding the problems associated with evaporation methods.

Researchers said that while DLE technologies can reduce land and water usage, there are still several challenges. One is that the composition of each brine found across the world differs and therefore each DLE method must be designed on a project-by-project basis, reports say.

In Chile, the Production Development Corporation, a government organization, has conducted research to implement DLE, with a goal to minimize the environmental impact of mining and improve water efficiency. In 2024, the Chilean government announced that of the 36 requests it had received to develop lithium projects in the country, more than 80% indicated an interest in using DLE technologies. No DLE projects have been implemented so far.

Araya said the Pai-Ote would like any mining on their land to be carried out using DLE or other clean technologies, but they still have not yet received this assurance from the company that seeks to mine on their land. León added that the community wants to see environmental safeguards linked to their rights to water and ecosystem conservation, equitable benefit-sharing and community representation in lithium contracting companies.

“For us, there must be respect for the integrity of the Colla people’s culture,” he said. “If any of our brothers want to work in mining, that’s fine. But the community as a whole wants to continue transhumance, making cheeses, weaving looms, performing ceremonies, etc.”

Citations:

Delgado, F., Shreve, T., Borgstrom, S., León-Ibáñez, P., Castillo, J., & Poland, M. (2024). A Global Assessment of SAOCOM-1 L-Band Stripmap Data for InSAR Characterization of Volcanic, Tectonic, Cryospheric, and Anthropogenic Deformation. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, vol. 62, pp. 1-21. doi: 10.1109/TGRS.2024.3423792.

Alam, M. A., & Sepúlveda, R. (2022). Environmental degradation through mining for energy resources: The case of the shrinking Laguna Santa Rosa wetland in the Atacama Region of Chile. Energy Geoscience, 3:2, pp. 182-190. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engeos.2021.11.006

Banner image: Workers perform maintenance next to pools of brine slowly turning into lithium at the Albemarle lithium mine in Chile’s Atacama desert. Photo by: AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd.

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