Historiography

Mining is a quintessential component of life in South America shaping the economy, landscape, and culture. The resource-rich land in these regions have been exploited for centuries for their valuable minerals and metals. Mining first began with indigenous groups; however, as the Spanish colonized South America, they significantly increased these exploitative processes by using native laborers. Mineral extraction has only increased as reliance on these precious commodities has become more prevalent due to industrialization and war efforts. The recent push for more environmentally friendly energy and power options has resulted in increased mining for lithium in South America, specifically in Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile which have been deemed the lithium triangle. These countries contain approximately 55% of the world’s lithium; however, previous lithium extraction has been limited due to the inhospitable, desert region where the lithium is found. Similar to past extraction endeavors, lithium mining greatly impacts many aspects of life within the surrounding regions. These scholarly works outline the varying impacts of mining processes within these countries but focus mainly on the environmental and cultural impacts of extraction. Since mining has been such a long-standing process in these countries, there is ample history concerning these topics. These publications will allow for the examination of historical mining repercussions and the impact they have on current endeavors as well as examine how attitudes have shifted regarding mining over time.

Latin America is a diverse, species-rich region that contains about 50% of the world’s biodiversity. Despite these areas containing unique and integral organisms, environmental degradation has been widespread through agriculture, industry, and mining. Previous literature outlines the detriments that past mining endeavors of copper, gold, silver and other commodities have had on the landscape and environment. One journal explaining this impact is authored by Myrna Santiago who is a history professor at Saint Mary’s College of California where she specializes in 20th-century US-Latin American relations. Her piece “Extracting Histories: Mining, Workers, and Environment” examines the environmental and social repercussions of mining in Latin America. During the 20^th century, to increase mineral excavation efficiency, most mining companies switched to open pit mining which involves the entire excavation of the land in order to access the resource. Not only does this completely obliterate the natural landscape in these regions, but this mining also results in pollution of the soil and water in the surrounding region. Santiago argues that while these mining endeavors are significantly damaging to the environment, they are integral to the functioning and continuance of life within this region ¹. Despite these damages, these excavation endeavors persisted, and many are still in operation today continuing the pollution and degradation of the unique landscapes located in these regions of Latin America.

The environmental degradation due to mining in these regions has only increased as lithium has become more vital to innovation and industry throughout the world. This is exemplified in the work by researchers from the University of Arizona and the University of Chile. The main author of this journal, Datu Agusdinata, and his colleagues argue in their publication “Socio-Environmental Impacts of Lithium Mineral Extraction: Towards a Research Agenda” that the views of lithium extraction have shifted over the years due to changes in environmental and social repercussions. While lithium extraction does not involve the open pit mining processes used for other commodities, lithium mining has unique, deleterious effects on the surrounding environment. Mining companies are extracting large amounts of groundwater from one of the driest regions on the globe. Agusdinata et al. examine the overlap between these mines with nature conservation areas and indigenous settlements which have resulted in water scarcity and limitations of biodiversity in the region ² . Mining has been and continues to be an incredibly detrimental factor to the surrounding ecosystem, landscape, and resources. These publications outline the continued environmental injustice throughout history as well as how limited intervention has allowed for the continuation of these deleterious processes.

Since many of these mining operations overlap with indigenous and other local towns, extractivism has shaped the people and culture in this region for generations. Myrna Santiago further explores the social impacts of mining in “Extracting Histories: Mining, Workers, and Environment.” One focus within this piece is mining towns. Since these mines were mainly located in generally uninhabited, rural areas within the desert, mining companies relied on local workers who they housed in newly erected towns. Santiago claims that this separation from their original homestead created a rift in these young men’s cultural understanding and practice. The mining companies attempted to limit miners’ interactions with their home villages which in turn isolated these men from their past traditions and practices. Historians believe that these practices were employed to illicit a more homogenized and controllable workforce within the mines ³. Mining created a new separation within local communities which has resulted in some loss of cultural ties within these regions.

While much of this previous literature has focused on the cultural isolation of miners within Latin America, more recent scholarship has begun to examine the local townspeople’s understanding and views of the mining industry. A recent study conducted by Maria Daniela Sanchez-Lopez of Cambridge University analyzed the shift in these persons’ opinions of mining processes over time as well as how lithium extraction, in particular, has caused this change. Her work “From a White Desert to the Largest World Deposit of Lithium: Symbolic Meanings and Materialities of the Uyuni Salt Flat in Bolivia” utilizes interviews to best understand the local perspectives surrounding these mining endeavors. This piece demonstrates an apparent shift in a cultural focus on materiality with the prospect of lithium mining in the salt flats. Previously, many locals deemed the salt flats as “worthless” and an “obstacle”, but now the region is their only remaining commodity. The author explains this shift in cultural understanding due to the previous injustices perpetrated by mining companies in these regions; these people believe they have a right to lithium which will allow for their survival in the region ⁴. The prospect of lithium extraction appears to have shifted local opinions of their landscape for the better; these people have a new-found hope regarding their continued survival and prospects in their homes.

Mining is a long-standing, integral component of life within Latin America; however, these extraction endeavors alter many components within these regions including the environment and culture. Both long-standing and new mining is significantly detrimental to the environment in this biodiversity hotspot. There have been limited attempts at regulations to reduce this damage to the surrounding regions. Mining has also shaped and altered the culture within South America. Past mining was detrimental to indigenous culture in attempts to erase cultural ties in young miners; however, recent extraction prospects have shifted local’s ties and understanding of the land for the better. These pieces illuminate perspectives that offer a broader understanding of the complex, intertwined nature and impacts that are associated with mining in South America.