Lithium production is expected to increase by more than eight times in the next seven years, as it is one of a handful of metals and minerals which are essential for what are currently the dominant ‘green’ technologies. Lithium is required for lithium-ion rechargeable batteries – widely used in electric cars and handheld electronics. The focus on individual electric vehicles in ‘green transition’ plans is largely responsible for the unprecedented increase in demand. However, lithium extraction is hugely resource intensive and is destroying whole ecosystems and communities. Lithium production is a new strategic battleground, with US and European imperialism competing with China for control of resources, leaving destruction in their wake. Lithium was a major factor in the 2019 coup against the progressive government of Bolivia, and it is certain to trigger more wars and coups whilst imperialism dominates the globe.
Lithium is the world’s lightest metal. It was discovered in 1817 and initially used as a medicine for gout, epilepsy and cancer. Industrial production of lithium really began in the 1940s to provide grease for aircraft engines during the Second World War. Lithium compounds also became an important medicine for treating bipolar and depressive disorders. Extraction and production expanded in the latter half of the century when lithium played a role in the production of nuclear weapons, and the US dominated the lithium production market until the fall of the Soviet Union. Subsequently, lithium was mostly used in the production of ceramics and glass, until electronics companies seized upon it as the best material for the efficient storage of energy.
Lithium reserves are large and widespread – the US Geological Survey estimated 80m tonnes globally in 2020. The ‘lithium triangle’ salt flats of the Andes, in South America, are thought to contain anything from 50% to more than 75% of this. Of the three lithium triangle countries, Chile leads in production, followed by Argentina. However, reserves in Bolivia are thought to be much larger. Other major reserves can be found in Australia (currently the world’s leading lithium producer), the US and China. China is the world’s main market for lithium, accounting for 40% of consumption, due to its attempts to decarbonise a vast economy. The focus on electric cars in its 12th five-year plan (2011-2015) caused a huge spike in demand. Mining companies Abermarle, Livent (US) and SQM (Chile) produce nearly half of the world’s lithium. However, Chinese companies Tianqi and Ganfeng are increasing their share and currently account for 25% of lithium production.
The environmental impacts of lithium mining are huge. In the lithium triangle salt flats – Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni, Chile’s Salar de Atacama, and Argentina’s Salar de Arizaro – extraction is carried out by drilling deep holes to remove vast quantities of brine which is then concentrated to produce lithium carbonate. This uses 500,000 gallons of water per tonne of lithium in one of the driest places on earth. This massive consumption of water has drastically lowered the water table, disrupting the water supplies upon which local indigenous communities depend. Once the brine has been extracted, it is left in vast pools to evaporate for months, leaving concentrations of manganese, potassium, borax and lithium salts. Waste pools of bright blue water, and heaps of toxic salts are left behind, polluting the soil and the air. Water has been frequently contaminated by chemical leakage from the mines – often hydrochloric acid. In Chile this has led to conflict over water between the mining companies and the Toconao community. Throughout the lithium triangle the environmental impacts are compounded by other mining activity, including for zinc, silver and copper.
China’s lithium extraction is also damaging the environment. Brine extraction at the Ganzizhou Rongda lithium mine in Tagong, Tibet, has been linked to the death of vast numbers of fish between 2013 and 2016, as well as those of yaks and cattle which drank from the contaminated Liqui river. Opencast mining for solid lithium in Australia, largely controlled by Chinese companies, has devastated vast areas, leaving polluted and scarred wastelands. Very few lithium-ion batteries are recycled (5% in the EU and US) as the process is currently difficult and expensive, and lithium reserves are plentiful.
The 10 November 2019 coup in Bolivia, which deposed the progressive Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) government, neatly demonstrates lithium production’s place in a world ruled by imperialism. The MAS government, led by President Evo Morales, had long been attempting to develop Bolivia’s huge lithium resources whilst ensuring that the mining benefited the Bolivian people. The government insisted that companies looking to invest would need to do a deal with Bolivia’s national mining company, Comibol, and the country’s lithium company, Yacimientos de Litio Bolivianos. Lithium-ion batteries were to be made in Bolivia, bringing skilled technical jobs into the country. Chinese companies were willing to work within Bolivia’s nationalised system, but this was anathema to the major capitalist lithium producers. Imperialist-based mining firms Eramet, FMC and Posco all refused deals with Bolivia and invested in production in Argentina instead. A deal was eventually struck with German ACI Systems – however indigenous protests led Morales to cancel the deal. Just days later his government was overthrown by Bolivia’s fascist elite and its international backers, installing the right-wing Jeanine Anez in his place. The share price of US electric car manufacturer Tesla soared following the coup, and figures from the coup government were quickly soliciting Tesla to locate a factory in Bolivia (See: Vijay Prashad Counterpunch 11 March 2020).
Lithium and other metals and minerals essential to the ‘green transition’ are increasingly key strategic commodities which will shape the future of imperialist wars and exploitation. Unless it can be broken free from the capitalist profit motive, the only role lithium can play is one of entrenching imperialist inequality and exploitation. Global disruption to supply chains through the coronavirus crisis could give a space for popular forces to challenge existing arrangements. Any real path to a sustainable future involves the dispossession of the dominant lithium corporations and for mining to be controlled by a collective, social and environmental agenda.
Toby Harbertson
Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! No 275, March/April 2020
