Foreign mining companies have been heavily involved in extraction in Chile, Bolivia, and Argentina since Spanish colonization in the early 1500s. These companies have exploited the land, resources, and people in these regions for centuries. This has resulted in limited economic gains for these countries and even less for the communities where mining takes place. Many of these communities have simply been exploited for resources and labor and have had little to no benefit for themselves or their community. Foreign mining companies are engaging in these same actions with lithium mining. These companies have little regard for the environmental and social degradation of the surrounding land and communities.
Some people residing in these indigenous communities are pushing back against the mining companies. While the mining companies claim there is no resistance to their extraction efforts, many local communities are vocal regarding their opposition. This source highlights interviews from the six indigenous communities surrounding the Argentinian mining as well as statements from the mining companies. These interviews offer insight into the resistance within the indigenous community due to feelings of injustice and exploitation.
“In visits to all six of the indigenous communities, which lie on a mountain-ringed desert about 25 miles from Argentina’s northwest border with Chile, The Post found a striking contrast — faraway companies profiting from mineral riches while the communities that own the land struggle to pay for sewage systems, drinking water and heat for schools.
“We know the lithium companies are taking millions of dollars from our lands,” said Luisa Jorge, a leader in Susques, one of the six communities around the salt flats. “The companies are conscious of this. And we know they ought to give something back. But they’re not.”
Many in the communities also are worried that the lithium plants, which use vast amounts of water, will deepen existing shortages in the region, which receives less than four inches of rain a year. At least one of the six communities, Pastos Chicos, already has to have potable water trucked in…
In response to the complaints, the mining companies active here told The Post that they follow environmental regulations and that the lithium boom has yielded benefits for residents. They point to the creation of hundreds of jobs and investments of hundreds of millions of dollars in one of Argentina’s poorest regions. Some companies said they also engage in education efforts and economic development projects, such as testing whether quinoa can be grown in the area.
“There is no resistance,” said Alex Losada-Calderon, general manager of Sales de Jujuy, the lithium company that opened a plant on the Olaroz salt flat in 2015. “From the very beginning we worked very, very closely with the local community.”
But opposition is not hard to find. A protest banner, reading “The lithium belongs to the local people,” recently welcomed travelers outside the airport in Salta, which is frequented by mining executives. The drive to the salt flats leads past a barrier on a steep mountain pass with the spray-painted message: “No to the contamination of the mines.” And settlements are dotted with people concerned about the future.
“They are taking everything away from us,” said Carlos Guzman, 44, an indigenous resident who leads a group worried about contamination and water use by the lithium mines. “These lands are ancestral. We live by this. By the fields. By our cattle. This way of life is in danger.””
Todd C. Frankel, Peter Whoriskey, “Tossed Aside in the ‘White Gold’ Rush: Indigenous people are left poor as tech world takes lithium from under their feet”, The Washington Post, December 19, 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/business/batteries/tossed-aside-in-the-lithium-rush/.