Photo: Phillie Casablanca
Does lithium mining represent economic self-sufficiency, environmental destruction, or both?
Throughout its history, South America has been the “X” on the map of the metal mining industry. Multi-national corporations have extracted copper in Chile, iron in Brazil, gold in Ecuador, and other precious metals across the continent, causing intense controversy about environmental and human impacts of the practice.
In recent years, though, mining has been nationalized by various Latin American countries whose political and business leaders recognize that the lucrative practice could help them achieve greater economic autonomy. Decisions to nationalize mining are hardly conflict-free, however. It’s as much the practice of mining as who’s doing it that has caused communities to mobilize in support of anti-mining initiatives, such as El Salvador’s recent nation-wide ban on gold mining.
According to this recent article from the Americas Society, Bolivia is the latest country to be confronting the conflict between the economic lure of and the potential political mire that mining represents. The Americas Society indicated that approximately 5.4 million tons of lithium are buried under Bolivia’s salt desert, representing almost half of the world’s entire lithium reserves.
Lithium is an important ingredient in batteries, and is considered a more attractive metal for battery manufacturing than zinc due to its higher voltage.
Bolivian president Evo Morales has been praised for warding off salivating foreign investors from mining his country’s lithium. He’s also been praised for his long-term plans for the lithium: turning the metal into a usable resource for electric car batteries.
But his plans to nationalize lithium extraction have failed to gain widespread support.
As this BBC report indicates, the salt desert is a pristine landscape; mining would likely have profoundly negative environmental effects on “one of the world’s most unspoiled” places. Lithium mining on the salt flats would also be likely to detract from tourism, a significant part of Bolivia’s economy.
So how does Bolivia negotiate two seemingly competing needs: the need to become economically autonomous, on the one hand, and the need to preserve a pristine place on the other? Share your ideas in the comments below.
Community Connection:
Matador Nights’ editor Tom Gates went to Chile to learn more about the mining industry there. Read about what he learned–and didn’t learn–in “The Battle for Pascua Lama.”
Bolivia’s salt flats topped our list of the world’s most alien landscapes. Check out the photo essay here.
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6 Comments... join the discussion!
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After seeing what copper has done and is still doing for Chile (ironically, in territory that was taken from them during the War of the Pacific), I don’t think Bolivia can ignore the potential represented by lithium mining. If they can actually swing it to where the money stays domestic (practically a “foreign” concept in South America!), it could seriously change the face of the country. And they need it.
The Salar is a gorgeous place to be sure, but I think a small part of it could be sacrificed to bring people out of destitute poverty. And they wanna make electric car batteries with it, not gold necklaces.
Wouldn’t it be great if there could be some sort of international **cooperation** whereby Bolivia was assisted in mining as low-impact as possible but still got to keep the majority of the profits? Now that would be progress.
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Amen, Hal!
That said, I remain really, really skeptical when it comes to these ventures. The history of Latin America looms sinister over anything like mining or drilling for oil–the U.S ambassador has already been declared persona non grata in Bolivia for allegedly conspiring (with the big foreign oil companies based out of Santa Cruz) to overthrow the government.
Does that mean Bolivia should sit back and leave its resources untouched? No…but I think that really extreme caution is necessary here.
Also, there comes a point at which the question of preserving the land is as urgent and pressing as that of exploiting resources. 70 percent of the rivers in China are polluted, and the air quality there is so poor that millions of children are suffering from serious respiratory diseases. Beyond the health issues, the country has been destroyed by rampant development–I don’t even want to think about the landscapes I went through on train rides from Beijing to Mongolia and Beijing to Hong Kong.
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Having it within government control will allow a better balance if done well. Certain regions should remain in their pristine state while the rest are exploited. The people of Bolivia could really use the growth.
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Evo Morales should nationalize mining and grant concessions only to companies, which are willing and able to build up a lithium battery and accumulator industry right there in a Bolivian city nearby. This would bring good jobs to the country and the required skills how to make the best use of its Lithium wealth.
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Evo Morales has proved to be rational and consistent in defending his country against foreign investors and Bolivian neo-liberal oligarchs. Both of these groups are slaves to the “bottom line”, with little or no regard to the people of the poorest country in south america.
His courageous fight against powerful and wealthy forces has proven difficult for him, yet effective in maintaining (if not reversing the status quo). I support his decision to delay the mining until a future date to be used in car batteries as mentioned in the article. I think during this time, he should encourage radical changes in the mining industry to minimize the negative impact on the land/environment,
I also have to say that the Bolivian people have the highest percent of indigenous in any country in south america, and its time these people are respected for their wishes…even if its 500 years too late.
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