Aside from longstanding use in manufacturing things like ceramics and heat-resistant glass, it is a vital component in rechargeable batteries for products ranging from mobile phones and laptops to electric cars. Lithium has become an increasingly valuable commodity in recent years. Union leaders claim Indigenous people are experiencing few benefits while being left to deal with the environmental consequences of lithium extraction. Successive Bolivian governments and foreign investors have long been interested in this increasingly important commodity, but now the local people of Uyuni are protesting lithium mining.
Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni salt flat alone holds an estimated 17% of lithium globally. The Altiplano-Puna Plateau is home to the ‘Lithium Triangle’, salt flats that stretch across Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia and hold over 75% of the world’s known supply of lithium.
The Bolivian government has been accused of ransacking the country's vast lithium reserves, concentrated in areas inhabited by Indigenous Aymara people.
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