Students play soccer in Huancar, Jujuy Province, Argentina, Tuesday, April 25, 2023. The Andean town is prospering because of the work available in nearby lithium mines. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Dust is kicked up from the road as the Callata family drives to the site where they raise livestock in Tusaquillas, Jujuy Province, Argentina, Sunday, April 23, 2023. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
A shepherd moves his animals in Tusaquillas, Jujuy Province, Argentina, Sunday, April 23, 2023. As the world’s most powerful increasingly look toward the lithium triangle, the largest reserve of lithium on earth, as a crucial puzzle piece to save the environment, others worry the search for “white gold” will mean sacrificing that very life force that has sustained the region’s native people for centuries. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Workers walk through the construction of the Cauchari-Olaroz Exar lithium mine in Jujuy Province, Argentina, Tuesday, April 22, 2023. Doors for mining companies have been left wide open under the country’s new right-wing “anarcho-capitalist” President Javier Milei, who was elected in November, under a promise to fix his country’s spiraling economy. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Community leaders assemble to discuss issues related to lithium mining in Tusaquillas, Jujuy Province, Argentina, Tuesday, April 22, 2023. As lithium mining has gained a greater global spotlight, the fate of water in the region has increasingly fallen out of the hands of those communities. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Irene Leonor Flores de Callata, 68, performs a brief ceremony to thank the earth after inspecting her corn crop at her home in Tusaquillas, Jujuy Province, Argentina, Sunday, April 23, 2023. “If the [lithium] mines come, we’ll have money for a time. But then our grandchildren, our great grandchildren – they’re the ones who will suffer,” she says. “I want to do everything possible to defend these lands, so they still have these fields, so they still have their waters.” (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Brine evaporates from pools at the lithium extraction plant facilities of the SQM Lithium company near Peine, Chile, Tuesday, April 18, 2023. In 2016, an investigation found SQM extracted more groundwater than legally permitted for consecutive years, something authorities said “put the stability of the ecosystem in extreme risk.” SQM later accused its neighbor of doing the same. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Tubes lie on the grounds of the lithium extraction plant facilities of the SQM Lithium company near Peine, Chile, Thursday, April 18, 2023. At least 1,280 liters of salted groundwater a second – somewhere between 6 to 8 bathtubs – are pumped according to the mine’s numbers. Water converges at rows of blue, green and yellow pools, where lithium-concentrated water is passed from pool-to-pool. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
A highway crosses the Salinas Grandes salt flats in the northern Argentine province of Jujuy on April 25, 2023. In 2024, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken underscored the importance Argentina's lithium in a visit to the South American country. "One of the most important to our shared future – in fact, one of the most important to the entire planet – is clean energy," Blinken said. "Argentina is poised to play a critical role in building supply chains for critical minerals that will drive the economy of the 21st century, particularly things like lithium." (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)
A farmer's sickle lies on a tarp during a break from harvesting corn and beans at a field near Peine, Chile, Friday, April 21, 2023. As the world’s most powerful increasingly look toward the lithium triangle, the largest reserve of lithium on earth, as a crucial puzzle piece to save the environment, others worry the search for “white gold” will mean sacrificing that very life force that has sustained the region’s native people for centuries. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
The town of Tusaquillas, in the northern Argentine province of Jujuy, sits near the Guayatayoc salt lagoon, background, on April 24, 2023. In rainy months, the sacred lands surrounding the small adobe town well with water. In the dry months, families hike miles under the beating sun, hopeful their livestock can sip from a small plastic container, fed by a hose running high up in the distant mountains. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)
A women attends a protest against lithium extraction in indigenous communities in San Salvador de Jujuy, Argentina, Wednesday, April 26, 2023. As lithium mining has gained a greater global spotlight, the fate of water in the region has increasingly fallen out of the hands of those communities. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
A sign that reads in Spanish, "Do not Pollute," is posted next to the road that connects Antofagasta with San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, Friday, April 19, 2023. Government officials told the AP a new plan would allow them to better regulate water use and distribute wealth beyond “just a small few.” But plans spurred outrage among indigenous communities who said they were once again sidelined by government negotiations with the mines. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Children leave at the end of the school day in Huancar, Jujuy Province, Argentina, Tuesday, April 25, 2023. The Andean town is prospering because of the work available in nearby lithium mines. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Vilma Callata, 45, draws water for her animals in Tusaquillas, Jujuy Province, Argentina, Sunday, April 23, 2023. Her native Kolla people have spent centuries climbing deep into the mountains of northern Argentina in search of a simple substance: Fresh drinking water. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
A man walks along a dusty road in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, late evening Sunday, April 16, 2023. A 2020 report by the United Nations, said that mining has consumed 65% of water around the Atacama Salt Flat, “causing groundwater depletion, soil contamination and other forms of environmental degradation, forcing local communities to abandon ancestral settlements.” (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
A soccer field sits in the desert near Peine, Chile, Thursday, April 20, 2023. Peine resident Ramon Torres says, “There is development, but there’s also the water issue. And they contradict each other. … Because everyone needs money, everyone also needs the basics, like healthcare and education.” (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Heavy equipment collects lithium carbonate at the SQM Lithium company facilities near Peine, Chile, Tuesday, April 18, 2023. Between 2021 and 2023, the price for one ton of lithium in U.S. markets nearly tripled, reaching a high of $46,000 a ton last year, according to a United States Geological Survey report. In China, the main customer of the region’s lithium, a ton of the metal went for a whopping $76,000 at its peak last year. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Vilma Callata, 45, collects blood from a slaughtered sheep in Tusaquillas, Jujuy Province, Argentina, Sunday, April 23, 2023. The parched waterways surrounding the town are intrinsically connected with spanning white salt flats below, subterranean lagoons with waters jam-packed with a material that’s come to be known as “white gold” – lithium. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Vilma Callata, left, and her sister, Katty Callata, make an offering to the Earth while they look after their animals in Tusaquillas, Jujuy Province, Argentina, Sunday, April 23, 2023. As the world’s most powerful increasingly look toward the lithium triangle, the largest reserve of lithium on earth, as a crucial puzzle piece to save the environment, others worry the search for “white gold” will mean sacrificing that very life force that has sustained the region’s native people for centuries. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Workers perform maintenance at the pools where brine is evaporated at the lithium extraction plant facilities of the SQM Lithium company near Peine, Chile, Thursday, April 18, 2023. The metal is currently key in the global fight against climate change, used in electric car batteries, crucial to solar and wind energy and more. But to extract it, mines suck water out of the flats, tethered to the lives of thousands of communities. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Llamas drink water in the hills of the Atacama Desert near Peine, Chile, Saturday, April 15, 2023. As the world’s most powerful increasingly look toward the lithium triangle, the largest reserve of lithium on earth, as a crucial puzzle piece to save the environment, others worry the search for “white gold” will mean sacrificing that very life force that has sustained the region’s native people for centuries. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
A student walks past a community water tank in Huancar, Jujuy Province, Argentina, Tuesday, April 25, 2023. Argentina's right-wing “anarcho-capitalist” President Javier Milei has announced a broad deregulation sweep, slashing costs for mining companies in an effort to lure investors amid deepening economic crisis. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Notes are written on a window at the SQM Lithium company processing plant in Antofagasta, Chile, Friday, April 19, 2023. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Tourists gather in the Salinas Grandes salt flats in Jujuy, Argentina, Tuesday, April 25, 2023. The salt flat brings income to towns through tourism and small-scale salt harvesting. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
A car drives down a road through the Salar de Atacama salt flat near the Albemarle lithium mine in Chile, Monday, April 17, 2023. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Brine evaporates in pools at the lithium extraction plant facilities of the SQM Lithium company near Peine, Chile, Tuesday, April 18, 2023. In the “lithium triangle” – a region spanning Argentina, Chile and Bolivia – native communities sit upon a treasure trove of the stuff: an estimated trillion dollars in lithium. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Workers harvest salt in the Salinas Grandes salt flats in Jujuy, Argentina, Tuesday, April 25, 2023. The salt flat brings income to towns through tourism and small-scale salt harvesting. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
A women holds a banner that reads in Spanish, "No to lithium, Yes to water and life," during a protest against lithium extraction in indigenous communities in San Salvador de Jujuy, Argentina, Wednesday, April 26, 2023. In 2024, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken underscored the importance Argentina's lithium in a visit to the South American country. "One of the most important to our shared future – in fact, one of the most important to the entire planet – is clean energy," Blinken said. "Argentina is poised to play a critical role in building supply chains for critical minerals that will drive the economy of the 21st century, particularly things like lithium." (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Elizabeth Mamani, 30, watches her son, Alexis, 10 paint the walls of their new house in Huancar, Jujuy Province, Argentina, Tuesday, April 25, 2023. The Andean town is prospering because of the work available in nearby lithium mines. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)