Veronica Dalto | Buenos Aires, (EFE).- Violent protests in the northern province of Jujuy sparked the debate on the sustainability of lithium exploitation.
Mineral that has geopolitical interest for the energy transition and for the development of the Argentine economy.
That intersects with the demands of caring for the environment and respect for indigenous communities.
“Lithium does not kill Pacha”, repeats the governor of Jujuy, Gerardo Morales, because he understands that, on the contrary, 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, along 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.
Projects in Argentina
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 he consults with indigenous communities about the projects.
Meanwhile, it hastily modified its provincial constitution to guarantee peaceful protests, but it had to leave the article on “aboriginal protection” the same, 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 “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 drinks water and competes,” Pía Marchegiani, director of Environmental Policy at the Environment and Natural Resources Foundation (FARN) explains to EFE.
“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,” Marchegiani details.
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,” which “is 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 is nothing that separates 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 pending.
Electromovilidad
The batteries that give energy to electromobility, and the main powers seek to guarantee the resource.
According to the consultancy Abeceb, the export potential of Argentina in 2023 is 1,000 million dollars and rises to 5,000 million dollars after 2030.
Argentina exports lithium added value, because it sells the “intermediate products” of other industries, Abeceb sector analyst Natacha Izquierdo told EFE.
In a country with strong macroeconomic imbalances, it is an advantage that investment in mining projects comes from abroad. “Despite the macroeconomics and the situation, it is a dynamic sector,” says Izquierdo.
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 demands and their parent companies,” says Izquierdo, pointing out that “today it is a more technological, productive mining, careful of the environment.”
But it generates “tension and uncertainty,” he adds, when communities organize protests and block roads in the area.