I. Introduction
Salinas Grandes is a vast salt flat in the high-altitude Puna region of Salta and Jujuy, two north-western provinces of Argentina. It is situated in one of the world’s driest regions, with an extremely fragile ecosystem. Salinas Grandes is so iconic and beautiful that Argentinians voted it amongst the country’s top seven natural wonders in May 2019.Footnote 1 In addition to its beauty, this stunning desert of salt also holds one of the largest reserves of lithium in the world.
Lithium is a light and versatile metal used to produce, among other things, the lithium-ion batteries that power electric vehicles (EV). As global efforts to phase out fossil fuels from our transport systems and adopt clean energy alternatives increase, lithium is becoming increasingly critical. It is no wonder, therefore, that industry has coined it the ‘white gold’.Footnote 2
Salinas Grandes is only one of many salt lakes in North West Argentina which, together with Bolivia and Chile, form what is known as the ‘lithium triangle’. It is estimated that these three countries alone account for more than half of the world’s lithium.Footnote 3
Global demand for lithium to produce EV is expected to grow rapidly over the coming decade. To meet this demand, the lithium industry will require significant investment to ramp up additional supply.Footnote 4 As a result, all eyes have turned to the ‘lithium triangle’ and investment in the region has soared in recent years.Footnote 5 For the three developing countries, this represents a unique opportunity to attract much-needed foreign investment and boost economic growth.Footnote 6
While undoubtedly lithium can help advance the global transition to clean energy and drive much-needed economic development, the accelerated pace of investment can also result in further environmental degradation, exploitation and abuse if allowed to take place without due regard for the environment and the human rights of the local population.
In March 2019, Amnesty International challenged the EV industry to ‘make the world’s first completely ethical battery within five years’.Footnote 7 Meeting this challenge is indispensable for securing not only a fast, but also a fair transition to clean energy. In Amnesty’s view, producing an ethical battery entails ensuring respect for human rights and the environment throughout the entire battery lifecycle, from mineral extraction through to disposal.Footnote 8 This piece focuses on the place where it all begins – the point of extraction.
II. New Technologies and Actors, Same old Violations and Abuses
There currently are at least two dozen lithium exploration concessions in Salinas Grandes.Footnote 9 Salinas Grandes is located on indigenous territory. Indigenous communities in the area live off small-scale agriculture and cattle-rearing for which access to land and water are critical. Ever since lithium exploration begun, they have been concerned about their water supplies.
A. Impacts on Water
The most common form of lithium extraction is through evaporation ponds. Once the lithium-rich brine is pumped up from underneath the salt flats, it is placed in huge pools. The water evaporates slowly leaving the lithium behind. Large amounts of brine water are lost in the process. Less water-intensive techniques are currently being tested, but none has reached scalability and commercial implementation.Footnote 10
Brine water is not fit for human consumption, but a decrease in brine water levels may have a negative impact on the availability and/or quality of fresh water which also sits underneath the salt flats.Footnote 11 Fresh water is also used to clean the lithium after the brine has evaporated, putting an additional strain on this resource. The effects on fresh water may be compounded by multiple extraction projects operating within one single salt lake basin.
Despite the increasing investment, there is a lack of scientific certainty regarding what the long-term environmental impacts of the industry will be on the fragile ecosystems in which lithium mining takes place in South America. Indigenous communities across the region are justifiably worried about their fresh water supplies, their livelihoods and their way of life.
Currently, there are only two active lithium exploitation sites in Argentina, one of which is located in the Olaroz-Cauchari salt flat, only a few miles away from Salinas Grandes.Footnote 12 A 2018 study on the hydrological balance of the Olaroz-Cauchari extraction site provided some worrying preliminary results. Based on publicly available company data and modelling, it concluded that more water was being lost through water evaporation ponds than was naturally replenishing into the system. The authors raised concerns about the sustainability of the evaporation technique and the future impacts that this may have in Salinas Grandes once actual exploitation got underway.Footnote 13
Concerns over water resources have also been raised in Chile where lithium exploitation has been underway for much longer. Indigenous communities living near lithium extraction sites in the Atacama Desert are sounding the alarm about water shortages.Footnote 14 The extent to which this is the result of mining activities, global warming, or the combined effect of both is unclear. However, water-intensive lithium extraction processes are clearly part of the problem.Footnote 15
In December 2019 a Chilean environmental court rejected an environmental compliance plan by Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile (SQM), one of the world’s largest lithium mining companies, in relation to its lithium extraction operations in the Atacama salt flat. The plan had been presented by SQM in response to an investigation by Chile’s environmental regulator which found that, among other things, the company had pumped more brine water than it was authorized. The court grounded its decision on the ‘precautionary principle’, taking into account the fragility of the Atacama ecosystem and the high level of scientific uncertainty about the behaviour of its water table.Footnote 16
While Argentina’s legislation requires environmental impact studies prior to the approval of any activity that may significantly impact the environment,Footnote 17 there are serious deficiencies in the way these studies are elaborated and approved, and the impacts they seek to address.Footnote 18 Scientists and non-governmental organizations argue that comprehensive water baseline studies are needed to provide a reference against which to compare changes in water levels over time. They also call for studies that assess the potential impacts of an extraction project on a salt flat’s entire basin as well as cumulative impact studies that assess the effect of multiple projects on a single salt flat’s water system.Footnote 19 These studies would go a long way to dispelling some of the environmental uncertainties and worries, yet none is currently required by law.
Provincial authorities appear to have recognized this need. Jujuy’s Mining and Hydrocarbons Secretary announced in June 2019 that his government was working with other provincial governments and industry to develop a ‘best practice’ protocol. This would include the implementation of studies that examined potential impacts of projects on the entire salt flat basin as well as cumulative impact assessments.Footnote 20 This is a positive step, but people are sceptical. These studies are not cheap, and they take time. There remains a fear that government and industry will yield to pressure from lithium-thirsty markets and the promise of big revenues before these best practice measures are put in place.
B. Indigenous People’s Rights
Water is not the only concern surrounding lithium mining in the ‘lithium triangle’. Most of these projects are developed on Indigenous peoples’ traditional lands. Indigenous people have a right to be consulted and to give their free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) in relation to projects that may affect their lands and territories.Footnote 21
Argentina’s constitution recognizes Indigenous people’s rights. The country has also ratified the International Labour Organisation’s Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention 169 and adopted the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. In accordance with Argentina’s federal system of government, these standards are implemented through provincial level regulation. While the applicable normative framework in both Salta and Jujuy provide for a level of consultation and access to information, the processes fall far short of what is required under international standards. For a start, neither provincial nor federal governments have incorporated FPIC into domestic legislation nor require it in practice.Footnote 22
Despite the multiple exploration concessions already granted in Salinas Grandes, the indigenous communities of the area have not been properly consulted or provided with complete information about the potential impacts of lithium extraction on their resources, including their water supplies.Footnote 23 Not surprisingly, they have brought various legal actions against the government and denounced their situation before various international human rights bodies.Footnote 24 The indigenous communities of Salinas Grandes today are opposing any further lithium developments on their territory.Footnote 25
III. Ensuring a Fair Transition to a Carbon-Free Future
The lack of scientific information explained above means that neither governments nor companies can understand the risks to the environment and human rights posed by lithium mining. This, in turn, undermines any efforts to adopt and monitor due diligence practices and extraction techniques that minimize those risks. Until such information exists, no consultation process or Indigenous people’s consent can be said to be fully informed, as required by international human rights standards.
Responsibility to ensure respect for human rights and the environment at the point of extraction of key battery components lies with all actors in the value chain. This includes the miners, investors, the buyers of the raw materials, the battery and EV manufacturers and their respective governments. A failure to act to identify and prevent potential human rights abuses at the point of extraction, or to request and monitor that these steps are taken, makes them all more or less directly responsible for these abuses.
Over the next decade, the European Union (EU) plans to invest billions of euros to develop its own capacity to manufacture EV batteries.Footnote 26 This means that EU demand for lithium and other battery raw materials will grow significantly in the future. At the same time, the European Commission (EC) is working on a legislative proposal to ensure that batteries are sustainable.Footnote 27 This is a promising initiative. Strong EU regulation in this area could spearhead similar efforts in other parts of the globe. It remains to be seen whether the final proposal, which must be negotiated across all EC directorates, includes provisions requiring human rights-compliant sourcing of battery components.
EV are indeed key to shifting the motor industry away from fossil fuels, and lithium is essential to secure this transition. However, the shift towards a clean motor industry cannot be pursued at the expense of the environment and human rights. In the context of lithium mining, ensuring a fair transition and a truly ethical EV battery will require a radical overhaul of normative frameworks in both producing and importing countries, robust human rights due diligence practices along the entire value chain and significant investment in scientific studies and water-friendly techniques.
