The Atacama Desert in Chile is home to numerous Indigenous communities. However, the climate crisis and the mining industry are reducing the region’s already scarce water reserves. Water-intensive lithium mining in particular is threatening to deprive Indigenous communities of their livelihoods and to destroy the desert’s fragile ecosystem. On the salt lake Salar de Maricunga, Indigenous communities are taking action against the construction of a new lithium mine.
The Atacama Desert is part of the so-called ‘Lithium Triangle’. This high plateau, where Argentina, Bolivia and Chile meet, is estimated to contain around three quarters of the world’s lithium resources. The Indigenous communities who have been living in this inhospitable region for centuries have learnt to adapt to the harsh living conditions. The climate crisis is also being felt here though, in the driest place on Earth: Droughts are becoming more frequent and extensive, and the already scarce water reservoirs are dwindling more and more.
The depletion of water resources is being dramatically accelerated by lithium mining on the region’s salt lakes: The mineral lithium is an important element in the batteries used for electric cars, which are seen as a beacon of hope in the fight against the climate crisis. The sharp rise in demand for lithium, driven by the electric car industry, has seen a race begin between various states and corporations striving to access new lithium sources as quickly as possible. According to estimates, Chile has the largest lithium reserves in the world. The Chilean state sees the mineral as a welcome financial windfall, which is why President Gabriel Boric announced a national lithium strategy in 2023.
However, Indigenous communities living in the Atacama Desert are literally being left high and dry by this ‘white gold’ rush. Mining projects, such as copper, gold and iron ore mines, have already been putting a strain on the desert’s scarce water reserves for decades – and now, lithium mining is threatening to exhaust them completely. Affected communities, such as the Likanantaí in the region around the salt lake Salar de Atacama, have long been pointing out that their water supply is dependent on the salt lakes high in the Andes, but there has been little scientific research into the desert’s groundwater system. On the other hand, a UN report published in 2020 does confirm that lithium mining in particular is extremely water-intensive. The report also states that, in total, around 65 percent of the water consumption on Salar de Atacama is caused by lithium mines. This also has an impact on the flora and fauna: The flamingo population in the region has shrunk by 10 percent since the first lithium mines started operating on Salar de Atacama. This was the conclusion of a study published in a Royal Society journal in 2022. Nevertheless, the state-owned mining corporation Codelco is persisting with its plans to press ahead with lithium mining in the Atacama Desert and will soon build the ‘Proyecto Blanco’ lithium mine on the northern part of Salar de Maricunga. It will be the first lithium mine on this salt lake, which is around 300 kilometres south of Salar de Atacama.
The Atacama Desert in northern Chile is the driest place on earth. Photo: Sirge/GfbV
The Colla are one of many indigenous communities that have lived in the desert for centuries. Photo: Sirge/GfbV
The water for the indigenous communities comes from the surrounding mountains, where the Salar de Maricunga is located. Photo: Sirge/GfbV
The struggle for a future in the desert
For the Indigenous communities living below Salar de Maricunga in the Paipote valley basin, everything is at stake: Despite the difficult conditions, they have been successfully cultivating the barren land there for generations. They grow fruit and vegetables, keep livestock, and preserve centuries-old knowledge about the desert and its peculiarities in their way of life and culture. However, the riverbeds are now threatening to dry up, and it is becoming increasingly difficult for these people to cultivate their fields. Before the new mine on Salar de Maricunga was approved, a catchment area was defined and the communities living there were consulted – but many of the villages affected by the water shortage are outside this area. Lesley Muños Rivera, a member of the Indigenous Qulla community in Copiapó Province, lives in one such village. Located in the Paipote valley, this village is supplied with water by rivers that run from the surrounding mountains. If the water in their valley dries up, Lesley’s community will have to give up living in the desert. “We are against the planned lithium mine,” Lesley confirms, “because Salar de Maricunga is an important part of our water supply. We want to be able to continue living here, and we want our community and our land to have a future.” She is on the steering committee of SIRGE, a coalition for Indigenous rights in the green economy, of which the STP is a member.
Uncertain consequences
The most common form of lithium extraction uses evaporation: Water from salt lakes is channelled into shallow basins, where solar irradiation causes it to evaporate, leaving behind crystallised lithium salt. This type of lithium extraction has already been happening on Salar de Atacama for years. Although the operators of these mines argue that they do not exceed the state-prescribed upper limit for water consumption, this limit is based on outdated studies that do not reflect the actual conditions in the desert.
In spring 2024, Chilean state-owned mining corporation Codelco acquired the Australian firm Lithium Power International, which owns Proyecto Blanco, the planned lithium mine on Salar de Maricunga. While the mineral will initially be extracted by means of the well-known water-evaporation method, the mine’s operators also want to use a new method in the near future, known as ‘direct extraction’. This involves adding a solvent to the salt lake’s water, which separates it from the lithium particles. The particles are filtered out and the water is then channelled back into the salt lake. As this means less water is lost, direct extraction is touted as particularly environmentally friendly. However, experts are voicing concerns that there are no long-term studies on how this method, and the changed chemical composition of the water, will affect life in and around Salar de Maricunga. “A one-off study,” as geologist Maccarena Naveas points out, “is not enough to determine the longer-term impact on this fragile ecosystem”. Despite the concerns of experts and the Indigenous community, construction of the mine has already been approved by the local environmental authority and exploration work on Salar de Maricunga is in full swing.
In the northern part of the Salar de Maricunga, the salt lake's first lithium mine is to be built soon. Photo: Sirge/GfbV
Lesley Muñoz Rivera and her community are fighting against lithium mining in the Salar de Maricunga, which jeopardises the desert's water resources. Photo: Sirge/GfbV
Geologist Maccarena Naveas shares the concerns of the indigenous communities: The effects of lithium mining on the region's unique ecosystem and water supply have hardly been researched. Photo: Sirge/GfbV
Resistance from Indigenous communities
Lesley Muños Rivera’s community, together with other affected parties, have appealed to the environmental court against the approval of the mine, after also having filed a complaint with the local environmental impact assessment authority. The proceedings are sluggish though, and the judgement is still pending. “In the context of the national lithium strategy,” explains Lesley, “we are also currently initiating a process of consultations with the Ministry of Mining. In Chile though, such consultations do not pursue the purpose of obtaining a community’s consent to a planned project on their land, but revolve around damage control measures and compensation.”
The communities are insisting on their right to self-determination and maintaining that Indigenous knowledge about the desert must be taken into account, so as to avoid irreversible damage to the ecosystem. In this regard, they are supported by SIRGE member organisations at various levels: Together with Earthworks, they have conducted a hydrogeological study, the results of which back up the hypothesis that lithium mining on Salar de Maricunga will have an impact on the water supply, flora and fauna in the Qulla community’s valley. This is because, although it was assumed during the process of approving the mine that there was no direct connection between the salt lake and the region’s groundwater system, the study’s findings indicate the opposite. The study also gives grounds to suspect that one of the lagoons on Salar de Maricunga is a key source for the region’s groundwater supply. Cultural Survival, another SIRGE member, is assisting the community with the construction of a museum and the realisation of a medicinal herb project, in order to preserve traditional Qulla knowledge and to study the effects of water scarcity on the plants. Last but not least, First Peoples Worldwide is documenting the currently ongoing process of consultations with the Ministry of Mining.
Elena Rivera, Lesley Muñoz Rivera's mother, is the president of the Colla community of Copiapó.
Colonialism in the name of sustainability
Also in the Argentine and Bolivian parts of the Lithium Triangle, Quechua and Aymara communities are reporting an increasing scarcity of water, due to the climate crisis and the mining industry. While human-made climate change is already painfully evident to the Indigenous communities in this Andean region today, lithium mining for the ‘environmentally friendly’ electric car industry is only making things worse for them. In many such projects, the states and corporations involved are violating the Indigenous right to free, prior and informed consent (FPIC). “Lithium mining threatens our way of life. Our governments have committed to respecting the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, as well as the right to self-determination. Despite this, we have still not been consulted about lithium mining on the salt lakes,” says Carlos Mamani by way of criticism. He is on the SIRGE steering committee and a member of the Aymara community who live in the Bolivian part of the Lithium Triangle.
In the case of lithium mining in the Atacama Desert, a colonial pattern is emerging, in which Indigenous communities are bearing the brunt of problems largely caused by the Global North. In the name of sustainability, Indigenous communities are once again being robbed of their rights, their land and, in the long term, their culture and identity. At the same time, supposedly sustainable projects are being pressed ahead with, before their environmental consequences have been adequately researched. What is urgently necessary, instead of this ‘green colonialism’, is that Indigenous rights be respected, and that Indigenous knowledge about land and nature be understood as a solution towards sustainable management of our planet and its resources.
