Lithium Triangle: Difference between revisions

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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>

Currently, many countries situated in the [[Global North and Global South|Global North]] are trying to incorporate [[technocratic solutions]] in order to achieve sustainability directives.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Parks, B. & Roberts, J. |title=Inequality and the global climate regime: breaking the north-south impasse |publisher=Routledge |year=2009 |isbn=9781315876177 |pages=161–191}}</ref> Many of these directives include solutions for which [[lithium]] is an essential resource, e.g., the shift to electric vehicles and battery storrage system. Yet, in most Global North countries, lithium is not nearly as abundant as in the lithium triangle. Therefore, contemporary power relations in [[geopolitics]] have enabled Global North countries to expand their [[resource frontier]] to the lithium triangle, touching upon notions of [[green extractivism]], to accommodate their needs at the expense of the [[Global North and Global South|Global South]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Vera |first1=María L. |last2=Torres |first2=Walter R. |last3=Galli |first3=Claudia I. |last4=Chagnes |first4=Alexandre |last5=Flexer |first5=Victoria |date=March 2023 |title=Environmental impact of direct lithium extraction from brines |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/s43017-022-00387-5 |journal=Nature Reviews Earth & Environment |language=en |volume=4 |issue=3 |pages=149–165 |doi=10.1038/s43017-022-00387-5 |bibcode=2023NRvEE...4..149V |issn=2662-138X}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Voskoboynik, D.M., & Andreucci, D. |date=2022 |title=Greening extractivism: environmental impact of direct lithium extraction from brines |journal=Nature Reviews Earth & Environment |volume=4 |pages=149–165}}</ref> This green extractivist practice taking place in the lithium triangle leads to severe impact on the environment and socio-economic/socio-cultural [[livelihood]]s of local residents.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Agusdinata |first1=Datu Buyung |last2=Liu |first2=Wenjuan |last3=Eakin |first3=Hallie |last4=Romero |first4=Hugo |date=November 2018 |title=Socio-environmental impacts of lithium mineral extraction: towards a research agenda |url=https://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aae9b1 |journal=Environmental Research Letters |language=en |volume=13 |issue=12 |pages=123001 |doi=10.1088/1748-9326/aae9b1 |bibcode=2018ERL....13l3001B |issn=1748-9326|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Dorn, F. M., Hafner, R., & Plank, C. |date=2022 |title=Towards a climate change consensus"how mining and agriculture legitimize green extractivism in Argentina |journal=The Extractive Industries and Society|volume=11 |doi=10.1016/j.exis.2022.101130 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Giglio, E. |date=2022 |title=Extractivism and its socio-environmental impact in South America. Overview of the Lithium Triangle |journal=América Crítica |pages=47–53}}</ref> On of these countries facing such extraction on a large scale is Argentina.

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/>