Drought, not lithium mining, is drying out Chile’s largest salt flat

Lithium mining has been blamed for the drying out of a region in the Andes where the metal is naturally found – but drought may be the culprit instead

By James Dinneen

Lithium production is often blamed for drying up freshwater in South America’s “Lithium Triangle” – a region of the Andes mountains in Chile, Argentina and Bolivia which contains most of the world’s lithium reserves. But a prolonged drought is probably behind most of the drying.

As a key component in batteries, lithium is critical to transitioning away from fossil fuels. Demand for the soft white metal is projected to increase 40 times by …