Lithium mining boom in Argentina sparks hope – and sacrifice

In San Miguel de Colorado, a hamlet 12,000 feet up in the arid mountains of northern Argentina, live some of the poorest people in the country, in one of its driest corners.

Beneath their feet lies wealth – one of the world’s richest reserves of lithium, a mineral critical to greening the world economy – that international mining companies are rushing to exploit. But local residents, predominantly Indigenous people, fear for the future of their scant water, which is key to the industrial extraction process.

Lithium “is a resource ... for the whole world,” says Abdón Valdiviezo, a community leader in San Miguel, standing outside his adobe home in the province of Jujuy. “But there is no commitment to our future. If we lose our water, we’ll have to leave.”

For the planet,