Lithium Triangle: Difference between revisions

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The '''Lithium Triangle''' ({{lang-es|Triángulo del Litio}}) is a region of the [[Andes]] that is rich in [[lithium]] reserves, encompassed by the borders of [[Argentina]], [[Bolivia]], and [[Chile]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Anlauf |first1=Axel |editor-last1=Pichler |editor-first1=Melanie|editor-last2=Staritz |editor-first2=Cornelia |editor-last3=Küblböck |editor-first3=Karin |editor-last4=Plank |editor-first4=Christina |editor-last5=Raza |editor-first5=Werner |editor-last6=Ruiz Peyré |editor-first6=Fernando |date=2016 |chapter=Greening the imperial mode of living? Socio- ecological (in)justice, electromobility, and lithium mining in Argentina |title=Fairness and Justice in Natural Resource Politics }}</ref> The lithium in the triangle is concentrated in various [[salt pan (geology)|salt pans]] that exist along the [[Atacama Desert]] and [[Arid Diagonal|neighboring arid areas]], the largest areas including [[Salar de Uyuni]] in Bolivia, [[Salar de Atacama]] in Chile, and [[Salar del Hombre Muerto]] in Argentina. Of those, [[Salar de Atacama]] in [[Chile]] has the highest concentration lithium (0.15% by weight) among all world's brine sources.

As of 2017 the area was thought to hold around 54% of the world's lithium reserves,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://resourceworld.com/lithium-triangle/|title=South America's prospective - The Lithium Triangle|author=Ellsworth Dickson|work=Resource World|access-date=7 December 2019|year=2017}}</ref>, however, these reserves, which are the largest in size and the highest in quality in the world, are not expected to make the surrounding countries wealthy, as oil has done for the [[Gulf Countries|Gulf countries]]. For example, the total amount of lithium minerals in [[Chile]] is worth "less than Saudi Arabia's three years' worth of oil exports."<ref>[https://oceanofpdf.com/authors/lukasz-bednarski/pdf-epub-lithium-the-global-race-for-battery-dominance-and-the-new-energy-revolution-download/?id=000715884250 Lithium: The Global Race for Battery Dominance and the New Energy Revolution.] 2021. L. Bednarski. {{ISBN|1787386732}}. p. 97.</ref>

According to ''[[The Economist]]'', Argentina was,by November 2022, the country with most ongoing lithium extraction projects; in total 40.<ref name=TheEco22>{{Cite news |title=Argentina could help the world by becoming a big lithium exporter |date=2022-11-15 |access-date=2023-04-21 |newspaper=[[The Economist]]|url=https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2022/11/15/argentina-could-help-the-world-by-becoming-a-big-lithium-exporter}}</ref> By one estimate Argentina could displace Chile as the second largest lithium producer by 2027.<ref name=TheEco22/> Similarly, there are estimates that posit Argentina producing 16% of the World's lithium by 2030 instead of the 6% it produced in 2021.<ref name=TheEco22/> Low [[royalty payment]]s when compared to Chile are cited by ''The Economist'' as a particular advantage.<ref name=TheEco22/>