[News] Chile’s Lithium Provides Profit to the Billionaires But Exhausts the Land and the People
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Mon Aug 1 13:30:07 EDT 2022
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*Chile’s Lithium Provides Profit to the Billionaires But Exhausts the
Land and the People*
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/austs-the-land-and-the-people-/qhlmjg/1112534476?h=dj4I2UbMA-1fp0YxOaS5hoE-RLEuI5o7YcMfnAjfFZc>
*By Vijay Prashad and Taroa Zúñiga Silva*
The Atacama salt flat in northern Chile, which stretches 1,200 square
miles, is the largest source of lithium in the world. We are standing on
a bluff, looking over /la gran fosa/, the great pit that sits at the
southern end of the flat, which is shielded from public view. It is
where the major Chilean corporations have set up shop to extract lithium
and export it—largely unprocessed—into the global market. “Do you know
whose son-in-law is the lithium king of Chile?” asks Loreto, who took us
to the salt flat to view these white sands from a vantage point. His
response is not so shocking; it is Julio Ponce Lerou
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/es-3-5-billion-fortune-at-risk/qhlmjk/1112534476?h=dj4I2UbMA-1fp0YxOaS5hoE-RLEuI5o7YcMfnAjfFZc>,
who is the largest stakeholder in the lithium mining company Sociedad
Química y Minera de Chile (SQM
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/en-/qhlmjn/1112534476?h=dj4I2UbMA-1fp0YxOaS5hoE-RLEuI5o7YcMfnAjfFZc>)
and the former son-in-law of the late military dictator Augusto Pinochet
(who ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990).
SQM and Albemarle
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/businesses-lithium/qhlmjr/1112534476?h=dj4I2UbMA-1fp0YxOaS5hoE-RLEuI5o7YcMfnAjfFZc>,
the two major Chilean mining companies, dominate the Atacama salt flat.
It is impossible to get a permit to visit the southern end of the flats,
where the large corporations have set up their operations. The companies
extract the lithium by pumping brine from beneath the salt flat and then
letting
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/-with-climate-change-concerns-/qhlmjv/1112534476?h=dj4I2UbMA-1fp0YxOaS5hoE-RLEuI5o7YcMfnAjfFZc>
it evaporate for months before carrying out the extraction. “SQM steals
our water to extract lithium,” said
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/3B3n-o-maldiciC3B3n-a-43569558/qhlmjy/1112534476?h=dj4I2UbMA-1fp0YxOaS5hoE-RLEuI5o7YcMfnAjfFZc>
the former president of the Council of Indigenous Peoples of Atacameño
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/3cJdboh/qhlmk2/1112534476?h=dj4I2UbMA-1fp0YxOaS5hoE-RLEuI5o7YcMfnAjfFZc>,
Ana Ramos, in 2018, according to Deutsche Welle. The concentrate left
behind after evaporation is turned into lithium carbonate and lithium
hydroxide, which are then exported, and form key raw materials used in
the production of lithium-ion batteries. About a third of the world’s
lithium comes from Chile. According to Goldman Sachs, “lithium is the
new gasoline
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/watch-v-gkMN8CN9OBY/qhlmk5/1112534476?h=dj4I2UbMA-1fp0YxOaS5hoE-RLEuI5o7YcMfnAjfFZc>.”
*What Necessity Does*
Ownership over the salt flat is contested
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/a-nueva-constitucion-resolvera/qhlmk8/1112534476?h=dj4I2UbMA-1fp0YxOaS5hoE-RLEuI5o7YcMfnAjfFZc>
among the state, Chile’s Indigenous communities, and private entities.
But, as one member of the Lickanantay community—the Indigenous people
who call the Atacama salt flat their home—told us, most of the owners of
the land do not live in the area any longer. Juan, who raises horses and
whose family were herders, tells us that people “live off the rents from
the land. They do not care what happens to the area.” However, Juan
knows that these rents are minuscule. “What they pay us as they mine our
land is practically a tip,” he says. “It is nothing compared to what
they earn. But it is still a lot of money.” For most Lickanantay people,
Juan says, “lithium is not an issue because although it is known to
damage the environment, it is providing [us with] money.” “Necessity
drives people to do a lot of things,” he adds.
The negative
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/2071-1050-13-20-11274-htm/qhlmkc/1112534476?h=dj4I2UbMA-1fp0YxOaS5hoE-RLEuI5o7YcMfnAjfFZc>
environmental impacts of mining lithium have been widely studied by
scientists and observed by tourist guides in Chile. Angelo, a guide,
tells us that he worries about the water supplies getting polluted due
to mining activities and the impact it has on the Atacama Desert
animals, including the pink flamingos. “Every once in a while, we see a
dead pink flamingo,” he says. Cristina Inés Dorador, who participated in
writing Chile’s new proposed constitution
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/new-constitutional-convention-/qhlmkg/1112534476?h=dj4I2UbMA-1fp0YxOaS5hoE-RLEuI5o7YcMfnAjfFZc>,
is a scientist with a PhD in natural sciences who has published
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/doi-10-1098-rspb-2021-2388/qhlmkk/1112534476?h=dj4I2UbMA-1fp0YxOaS5hoE-RLEuI5o7YcMfnAjfFZc>
about the decline of the pink flamingo population in the salt flat.
However, Dorador has also said
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/es-3-5-billion-fortune-at-risk/qhlmjk/1112534476?h=dj4I2UbMA-1fp0YxOaS5hoE-RLEuI5o7YcMfnAjfFZc>
that new technologies could be used to prevent the widespread negative
environmental impact. Ingrid Garcés Millas, who has a PhD in earth
sciences from the University of Zaragoza and is a researcher at the
University of Antofagasta, pointed out
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/-por-ingrid-garces-millas-html/qhlmkn/1112534476?h=dj4I2UbMA-1fp0YxOaS5hoE-RLEuI5o7YcMfnAjfFZc>
that the currently used of lithium extraction has led to the
deterioration of the “ways of life of [the] Andean peoples” in an
article for Le Monde Diplomatique. An example she provided was that
while the underground water supply is used by the lithium industry, the
“communities are supplied [with water] by cistern trucks.”
According to a report
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/s-of-the-energy-transition-pdf/qhlmkr/1112534476?h=dj4I2UbMA-1fp0YxOaS5hoE-RLEuI5o7YcMfnAjfFZc>
by MiningWatch Canada and the Environmental Justice Atlas, “to produce
one ton of lithium in the salt flats in Atacama (Chile), 2,000 tons of
water are evaporated, causing significant harm to both the availability
of water and the quality of underground fresh water reserves.”
Meanwhile, there is no pressing debate in the Atacama region over the
extraction of lithium. Most people seem to have accepted that lithium
mining is here to stay. Among the activists, there are disagreements
over how to approach the question of lithium. More radical activists
believe that lithium should not be extracted, while others debate about
who should benefit from the wealth generated by the mining of lithium.
Still others, such as Angelo and Loreto, believe that Chile’s
willingness to export the unprocessed lithium denies the country the
possibility of exploring the benefits that might come from processing
the metal within the country.
*Natural Commons*
Before the presidential election in Chile in November 2021, we went to
see Giorgio Jackson, now one of the closest advisers to Chile’s
President Gabriel Boric. He told
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/e-dawn-of-a-new-political-era-/qhlmkv/1112534476?h=dj4I2UbMA-1fp0YxOaS5hoE-RLEuI5o7YcMfnAjfFZc>
us then that Chile’s new government would look at the possibility of the
nationalization of key resources, such as copper and lithium. This no
longer seems to be on the government’s agenda, despite the expectation
that the high prices for copper and lithium would pay for the
much-needed pension reforms and the modernization of the country’s
infrastructure.
The idea of nationalization was floated around the constitutional
convention but did not find its way into the text of the proposed
constitution, which will be put to vote
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/-final-vote-sept-4-2022-07-04-/qhlmky/1112534476?h=dj4I2UbMA-1fp0YxOaS5hoE-RLEuI5o7YcMfnAjfFZc>
on September 4. Instead, the proposed constitution builds on Article 19
of the 1980 constitution
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/tos-10221-1-60446-3-132632-pdf/qhlml2/1112534476?h=dj4I2UbMA-1fp0YxOaS5hoE-RLEuI5o7YcMfnAjfFZc>,
which provides for “the right to live in an environment free from
contamination.” The new constitution
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/-Definitivo-CPR-2022-Tapas-pdf/qhlml5/1112534476?h=dj4I2UbMA-1fp0YxOaS5hoE-RLEuI5o7YcMfnAjfFZc>
is expected to lay out the natural commons under which the state “has a
special duty of custody, in order to ensure the rights of nature and the
interest of present and future generations.”
In the waning days of the government of former President Sebastián
Piñera, Chile’s Mining Ministry awarded
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/ti-million-dollar-lithium-html/qhlml8/1112534476?h=dj4I2UbMA-1fp0YxOaS5hoE-RLEuI5o7YcMfnAjfFZc>
two companies—BYD Chile SpA and Servicios y Operaciones Mineras del
Norte S.A.—extraction rights for 80,000 tons of lithium each for 20
years. An appeals court in Copiapó heard a petition from the governor of
Copiapó, Miguel Vargas, and from various Indigenous communities. In
January 2022, the court suspended
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/ti-million-dollar-lithium-html/qhlml8/1112534476?h=dj4I2UbMA-1fp0YxOaS5hoE-RLEuI5o7YcMfnAjfFZc>
the deal; that suspension was upheld
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/citacion-del-litio-en-atacama-/qhlmlc/1112534476?h=dj4I2UbMA-1fp0YxOaS5hoE-RLEuI5o7YcMfnAjfFZc>
in June by the Supreme Court. This does not imply that Chile will roll
back the exploitation of lithium by the major corporations, but it does
suggest that a new appetite is developing against the widespread
exploitation of natural resources in the country.
Until 2016, Chile produced
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/s-PPT20Litio20agosto202020-pdf/qhlmlg/1112534476?h=dj4I2UbMA-1fp0YxOaS5hoE-RLEuI5o7YcMfnAjfFZc>
37 percent of the global market share of lithium, making the country the
world’s largest producer of the metal. When Chile’s government increased
royalty rates on the miners, several of them curtailed production and
some increased their stake in Argentina (SQM, for instance, entered a
joint venture
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/2016-03-20160330-sqm-html/qhlmlk/1112534476?h=dj4I2UbMA-1fp0YxOaS5hoE-RLEuI5o7YcMfnAjfFZc>
with Lithium Americas Corporation to work on a project in Argentina).
Chile is behind
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/of-clean-energy-task-xj4y7vzkg/qhlmln/1112534476?h=dj4I2UbMA-1fp0YxOaS5hoE-RLEuI5o7YcMfnAjfFZc>
Australia in terms of lithium production in the world market presently,
falling
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/s-PPT20Litio20agosto202020-pdf/qhlmlg/1112534476?h=dj4I2UbMA-1fp0YxOaS5hoE-RLEuI5o7YcMfnAjfFZc>
from 37 percent in 2016 to 29 percent in 2019 (with an expectation that
Chile’s share will fall further to 17 percent by 2030).
Juan’s observation that “necessity drives people to do a lot of things”
captures the mood among the Atacameños. The needs of the people of the
region seem to only come after the needs of the large corporations.
Relatives of the old dictators accumulate wealth off of the land, while
the owners of the land—out of necessity—sell their land for a /propina/,
a tip.
/*Vijay Prashad* is an Indian historian, editor and journalist. He is a
writing fellow and chief correspondent at Globetrotter. He is an editor
of LeftWord Books
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/2022-08-01/qhlmlr/1112534476?h=dj4I2UbMA-1fp0YxOaS5hoE-RLEuI5o7YcMfnAjfFZc>
and the director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/2022-08-01/qhlmlv/1112534476?h=dj4I2UbMA-1fp0YxOaS5hoE-RLEuI5o7YcMfnAjfFZc>.
He is a senior non-resident fellow at Chongyang Institute for Financial
Studies
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/y2hdjcpo/qhlmly/1112534476?h=dj4I2UbMA-1fp0YxOaS5hoE-RLEuI5o7YcMfnAjfFZc>,
Renmin University of China. He has written more than 20 books,
including/ The Darker Nations
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/1595583424--tag-alternorg08-20/qhlmm2/1112534476?h=dj4I2UbMA-1fp0YxOaS5hoE-RLEuI5o7YcMfnAjfFZc>
/and/ The Poorer Nations
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/1781681589--tag-alternorg08-20/qhlmm5/1112534476?h=dj4I2UbMA-1fp0YxOaS5hoE-RLEuI5o7YcMfnAjfFZc>.
/His latest books are/ Struggle Makes Us Human: Learning from Movements
for Socialism
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/s-1869-struggle-makes-us-human/qhlmm8/1112534476?h=dj4I2UbMA-1fp0YxOaS5hoE-RLEuI5o7YcMfnAjfFZc>
/and (with Noam Chomsky)/ The Withdrawal: Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and
the Fragility of U.S. Power
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/books-withdrawal/qhlmmc/1112534476?h=dj4I2UbMA-1fp0YxOaS5hoE-RLEuI5o7YcMfnAjfFZc>.
/*Taroa Zúñiga Silva* is a writing fellow and the Spanish media
coordinator for Globetrotter. She is the co-editor with Giordana García
Sojo of/ Venezuela, Vórtice de la Guerra del Siglo XXI
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/ce-de-la-guerra-del-siglo-xxi-/qhlmmg/1112534476?h=dj4I2UbMA-1fp0YxOaS5hoE-RLEuI5o7YcMfnAjfFZc>
/(2020). She is a member of the coordinating committee of Argos:
International Observatory on Migration and Human Rights
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/2022-08-01/qhlmmk/1112534476?h=dj4I2UbMA-1fp0YxOaS5hoE-RLEuI5o7YcMfnAjfFZc>
and is a member of the Mecha Cooperativa
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/2022-08-01/qhlmmn/1112534476?h=dj4I2UbMA-1fp0YxOaS5hoE-RLEuI5o7YcMfnAjfFZc>,
a project of the Ejército Comunicacional de Liberación
<https://go.ind.media/e/546932/ecl2021/qhlmmr/1112534476?h=dj4I2UbMA-1fp0YxOaS5hoE-RLEuI5o7YcMfnAjfFZc>./
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