It is night in the Atacama Desert, the driest in the world, and a drill is extracting brine in the Aguilar salt flat to evaluate the concentration of lithiuma key metal in the energy transition but whose production involves environmental risks.
Chile accelerates to regain leadership in lithium. But the large-scale exploitation of this metal threatens the fragile ecosystems that house the salt flats of northern Chile, a means of subsistence for small indigenous populations who fear that the little diversity they have left will end up exterminated.
In the heart of the so-called “Lithium Triangle”, which extends through Chile, Argentina and Bolivia and has the largest reserve on the planetthe Aguilar and La Isla salt flats are in the full exploration phase.
At more than 3,400 meters of altitude in Aguilar the temperature drops to -3ºC and the wind exceeds 40 km/hour. On La Isla, 15 km away and another 1,000 meters of altitude, the climate is even harsher.
The southern winter is approaching and there is a rush to finish the work by the National Mining Company (Enami). “We drill during the day and drill at night, because what we need is to speed things up,” says Iván Mlynarz, Executive Vice President of Enami, to AFP.
Drillers extract samples of brine and chunks from the well that are sent to a laboratory to measure the lithium concentration.
The study concludes in October. The new project partner will be announced in March and in 2030 the production of this “white gold”, key in electric car batteries, should begin.
Public-private alliance
Enami’s Altoandinos is the project that also includes the Salar Grande and could provide 60,000 tons of metal per year. It is key in Chile’s plan to regain global leadership in the sector through public-private partnerships.
Australia, which extracts lithium from rocks unlike Chile which does it from brine, took over the place in 2016. Today it produces 43% and Chile 34%. The strategy of the government of social democrat Gabriel Boric also plans to expand production in the Atacama salt flat, with a agreement signed on Friday between the state-owned Codelco, the world’s largest copper producer, and the private SQM.
The alliance will add around 300,000 tons of lithium in total between 2025 and 2030, and will considerably increase Chile’s production, which in 2022 reached 243,000 tons per year.
Chile has the largest lithium reserves (41%). Last year, the metal represented 5.3% of its exports compared to 45% for copper.
Environmental impact
Lithium is produced in Chile through the evaporation of brine in ponds or pools, with intensive use of water pumped from the salt flats.
Its massive exploitation puts at risk endemic species in danger of extinction, such as flamingos, vicuñas, guanacos and chinchillas, in addition to a very diverse ecosystem.
Next to the loss of tons of water In the most arid place on the planet, large saline waste is generated. The extensive pools form mirrors of water that cause the death of birds.
“These fragile Atacama salt flats are a refuge for diverse Andean life, biological corridors of the Altiplano. They are not mines, they are ecosystems,” warns Cristina Dorador, professor at the University of Antofagasta.
They also allow the subsistence of Colla indigenous people who have lived in these areas for years, and who fear that lithium will be the final blow after the gold and copper works.
“It means wanting to exterminate the little biodiversity that we have left,” complains Cristopher Castillo, 25, from a small Colla community of nomadic shepherds. The Colla number about 20,000 throughout Chile and the lack of water has expelled them from the mountain range to the cities.
A sign on the road that connects Antofagasta with San Pedro de Atacama, in southern Chile, in an image from 2023. Photo: AP“If we dry out the salt flats it won’t rain anymore, it won’t snow anymore and that chains everything; all biodiversity will decline,” adds Castillo.
Aguilar and La Isla, in Diego de Almagro (800 km north of Santiago), are at the southern end of the Atacama Desert, and are difficult to access. The nearest airport is eight hours away along a dirt road that reveals the vestiges of other mining booms.
Abandoned villages, rusty water wells and the disused line of an old mining railway are lost among the arid mountains that look ocher, violet and greenish tones.
About 50 people work in the Enami camp, in shifts of 14 days of work and 14 days of rest. They sleep in tents where they withstand the cold and wind. “We have had very positive results. The quality of the lithium or what we have been obtaining from samples has been very favorable,” says Cristhian Moreno, head of the camp, at the foot of a drilling rig that drills unstoppably.
