- Argentina is trying to position itself as a global hub for clean energy, attracting private investment in lithium mining while marketing new battery factories in the region.
- The World Bank has framed some of the lithium projects it backs as “climate action” that will help advance the clean energy transition.
- But critics say lithium mining is hurting local and Indigenous communities and depleting freshwater resources.
- The race to buy up private land for lithium mining has also allowed an influx of international corporations that may contribute to increased carbon emissions rather than help lower them, critics point out.
Argentina has the second-largest reserves of lithium in the world, at around 22 million tons. As battery technology advances and global demand for the mineral grows, the country is trying to position itself as a global hub for renewable energy generation. Corporations and banks have heralded a wave of “green” policies aimed at accelerating the country’s lithium mining industry. But some observers argue these policies aren’t as green as advertised, and may actually be harming the environment and local communities.
Last year, the World Bank launched a program aimed at formalizing land tenure across the globe, arguing that climate action requires “direct access” to titled property for the private sector. Around half of the Paris Agreement climate action plans involve land, it pointed out, and more than half of all transition minerals are located on or near Indigenous territory. Finding “suitable” land for climate investments can be risky if land claims are unrecorded or disputed, it said in a statement last year. The program aims to address that obstacle by dedicating $10 billion over the next decade to land sector investment.
Not everyone thinks this is a good idea, though. The program benefits large corporations and could exploit local communities opposed to lithium extraction, according to the Oakland Institute, a think tank based in California. After a title is granted, land can be leased and sold away from the small communities it once benefited.
“The bank’s land agenda is about enabling unfettered global economic growth — directly opposing the urgent need to curb the emissions resulting from this growth,” the Oakland Institute said in a report.
In 2022, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector branch of the World Bank, granted a $180 million loan to Australian mining company Allkem for a lithium mine in the Salar del Hombre Muerto salt pan in Argentina’s Catamarca province. IFC leadership said the project would help set high sustainability standards for the lithium mining industry. It also partnered with a private electricity company in Argentina to provide renewable energy to mining companies in the province — a project costing around $600 million.
These deals were presented as climate action with an economic upside. IFC officials said they would create jobs while helping reduce global carbon emissions and supplying thousands of tons of lithium carbonate equivalent for clean battery production. But the area continues to be at the center of controversy. Salar del Hombre Muerto faces water shortages exacerbated by lithium mining, and the project failed to adequately consult with local communities, critics say — a violation of international law. Some lithium mines also compromise the ancestral territory of Indigenous communities.
“This is neither green, nor just,” Ivahanna Larrosa, regional coordinator for Latin America at the Coalition for Human Rights in Development, said in a statement last year.
In a statement, World Bank Group said it carried out more than 185 community consultations between 2020 and 2021, and required clients to adhere to environmental and social performance standards. It also said only brackish groundwater unsuitable for human consumption was extracted, and that the process was subject to monitoring and adaptive management practices.
Arcadium Lithium, the company formed by a 2024 merger with Allkem and US company Livent, didn’t respond to a request for comment for this story.
In March 2024, a court in Argentina froze the adoption of new mining permits in the area where the Arcadium Lithium mine is located, citing environmental risks. However, Arcadium Lithium’s mine was allowed to continue operating.
Environmental and social conflicts have also plagued other parts of the Lithium Triangle, which comprises Argentina, Bolivia and Chile. But Argentina is the only country so highly exposed to abuse by the private sector, experts say. Bolivia, which has the world’s largest lithium deposits, requires private companies to partner with state-owned company Yacimientos de Litio Boliviano (YLB). Chile has been developing a new national lithium strategy to give a public agency similar control, with the government retaining a majority stake in public-private partnerships. But in Argentina, provincial governments control mining oversight. The laws are structured to attract private investment, offering large tax breaks and limited royalties.
“Selling concessions, obtaining investments and benefitting from royalties present a huge opportunity for the provincial government to increase its revenues, create employment and increase political independence from the national government,” one study on lithium mining pointed out.
In Jujuy province, officials have publicized new battery factories alongside the lithium mines, framing the province as a tech and energy hub that can fulfill multiple steps in the supply chain. But the developments reportedly lacked a framework for joint participation with the government or scientific community, and in some instances excluded organizations representing local and Indigenous communities.
Last May, the Environment and Natural Resources Foundation (FARN) wrote to two public Chinese mining entities, outlining the human rights and environmental concerns posed by lithium mining in Jujuy, including a lack of consultation with Indigenous communities. The organization also said requirements for environmental impact assessments were outdated.
One of the entities, the China Chamber of Commerce of Metals, Minerals and Chemicals Importers and Exporters (CCCMC), helps oversee China’s trade of mined products. The other, the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), has 13 lithium and borate mines on approximately 32,000 hectares (79,000 acres) in Salinas Grandes, one of the busiest salt flats in Argentina. CNOOC and CCCMC never responded to FARN’s messages.
In a statement, FARN said it’s important for the survival of the region that foreign investors comply with human rights and environmental regulations while respecting local Indigenous communities.
“The environmental authorizations granted by the provincial government for lithium exploration in Salinas Grandes have been carried out in an opaque manner, without access to information and with serious violations of applicable national and international regulations,” the group said.
Banner image: Tourists gather in the Salinas Grandes salt flats in Jujuy, Argentina, Tuesday, April 25, 2023. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
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