Lithium in Argentina: a violation of Pachamama or a key input for the ecological transition?

Violent protests in the northern province of Jujuy sparked the debate on the sustainability of the lithium exploitationmineral that has geopolitical interest for the energy transition and for the development of Argentine economywhich intersects with the demands of caring for the environment and respect for the indigenous communities.

“Lithium does not kill Pacha”, repeats the governor of Jujuy, Gerardo Morales, because he understands that, in reverse, it serves to save the planet. But indigenous communities of the Salinas Grandes and the Gayatayoc Lagoon (in the extreme northwest of the province) resist the advance of the companies that extract lithium due to the need to take care of the little fresh water in the area.

In Argentina, the provinces have control over the exploitation of minerals in their territory and it is Jujuy, Salta and Catamarca that have lithium-rich brines.

Argentina integrates, together with Bolivia and Chile, the ‘lithium triangle’, which concentrates 56% of the world’s lithium resources and reaches 30.7% of the world’s production of this mineral by 2021.

With three projects underway, Argentina is the fourth largest lithium producer in the world, behind Australia, Chile and China.

The Fénix project, in the Salar del Hombre Muerto, in Catamarca, is operated by FMC-Minera del Altiplano, controlled by the US company Livent.

In Jujuy are the Salar de Olaroz, operated by Orocobre, controlled by the Australian Allkem, in association with the Japanese automaker Toyota Tsusho and the provincial company Jemse; and the Caucharí-Olaroz project, of the Exar mining company, of the Chinese Ganfeng Lithium, in association with the American Lithium Americas and Jemse.

Jujuy says that it consults indigenous communities about the projects, while it hastily modified its provincial constitution to guarantee peaceful protests, but it should have left the article of “protection of aborigines”due to the protests last month.

Ask about the water

The conflict is aggravated because the communities of Salinas Grandes and Laguna de Gayatayoc have been demanding a consultation for 13 years to agree to exploit lithium and denounce that Jujuy never complied with that right, and is advancing on projects.

The communities “They informed themselves and decided that they do not want lithium because they have their own activities that depend on the scarce water of the Puna, since they exploit salt, tourism, livestock”and “lithium takes water and competes”explains the director of Environmental Policy of the Environment and Natural Resources Foundation (FARN), Pía Marchegiani.

“In such a fragile and dry ecosystem, the communities agreed that they should all be consulted because they are all going to be affected by the use of water”details Marchegiani.

For this reason, there are suspicions of those residents who would have given their approval to the Agonic project, of the Lithos company, belonging to the powerful Pan American Energy Group, also in Jujuy.

As he explains, “the basin has a complex water system”that “It’s like a giant saltwater pool where the minerals are and further out are the freshwater parts, which are important for such a dry place, and there’s nothing to separate them. When brine is pumped, the fresh water moves to the center of the salt flat and becomes salinized.”

The FARN asked the Supreme Court to stop the permits to the mining companies and to fully manage the basin as a water resource, not with a mining vision, and the Supreme Court requested information from Salta and Jujuy to decide on the substantive issue, still earring.

electromobility

Lithium is key as an input for the batteries that power electromobility, and the main powers seek to guarantee the resource.

According to the consulting firm Abeceb, Argentina’s export potential in 2023 is US$1 billion and rises to US$5 billion after 2030.

Argentina exports lithium added value, because it sells the “Intermediate products” from other industries, comments Abeceb sector analyst Natacha Izquierdo.

In a country with strong macroeconomic imbalances, it is an advantage that investment in mining projects comes from abroad. “Despite the macroeconomics and the current situation, it is a dynamic sector,” says Left.

The mining companies are demanding fiscal stability and being able to transfer profits to shareholders.

The mining sector has its own environmental control law in Argentina, in addition to provincial controls: “The reality is that today there is mitigation” and “companies are under great pressure from local requirements and their parent companies”says Izquierdo, noting that “Today it is a more technological, productive, environmentally careful mining.”

But it generates “tension and uncertainty”he adds, that the communities organize protests and block the routes in the area.

Source: EFE