Lithium, the future environmental and human disaster?

Brine extracting.

The production and recycling of electric car batteries poses major environmental and social problems: Lithium batteries are being used for vehicles but also for their computer and electronic equipment. This increases the pressure on this rare metal lithium, a material that has become one of the most strategic on the planet.

Lithium - also known as white gold - often comes from Latin America. Its production, very greedy in water, damages the ecosystems and the survival of the local populations in areas where the drought is already problematic.

Lithium is among the elements identified as particularly sensitive by the World Bank: "whose demand is expected to increase by 1,000%, driven by the production of electric vehicles. If the risk of depletion is lower, it is the conditions of its extraction in arid regions, and in particular the high demand for water, which are worrying."

Extraction of lithium

Bolivia has the world's largest reserves of lithium, 40% of the planet's stock. It has invested 1 billion euros, considering that lithium will be to the electric car what oil is to the gas car. The authorities want to make Bolivia the Saudi Arabia Lithium. They want to make Bolivia the world's largest producer of lithium and set world market prices.

Lithium extraction technology generates fewer emissions than mining. But the use of large evaporation pools 20-30 km long. Tons of brine pumped into the desert water tables are transported in huge ponds. It is this brine that contains lithium. The evaporation of pond water is a natural process that lasts twelve months. We obtain salts rich in minerals of all kinds. 

In the largest lithium mine in Bolivia, the environmental consequences of this practice could be considerable. In this already 'desertic' region, the consumption of water necessary for the production of lithium is gigantic. The surrounding rivers are already dry. Quinoa, the main agricultural resource of the dozens of Indian communities of farmers living of quinoa, raising llamas and sometimes tourism, in the region, are the most affected by this drought.
For a long time, tourism was the only wealth of the Bolivia Indian communities, but landscapes are today transformed to make way for the exploitation of lithium, essential for mobile phones, computers and batteries of electric cars.

In Argentina and Chile where Lithium extraction is already taking place on a large scale, social development expectations have not been met. Chilean , US multinationals, Chinese companies claimed to use 100 liters of water per second, when in fact they used 200!

the result: the area was dry, salinization was much more important due to the greater evaporation. The Indian communities were severely impacted. And most of the profit is taken by production companies.

Ultimately, do we have to destroy other ecosystems of the planet in order to reduce CO2 emissions using electric vehicles? Aren't we solving a problem by creating an even more devastating one?

Can't companies develop new technologies and processes to make sure that this metal extraction not only supports their own business, but also protects the local ecosystems AND helps a sustainable development of the local communities?