Oct 13, 2025
Clean Energy Frontier
Efforts to green lithium extraction face scrutiny over water use
Direct lithium extraction has been hailed as a way to reduce mining impacts in South America but experts warn the technology may not be ready for large-scale deployment
Sam Meadows
Editor: Chloé Farand
Mining companies are showcasing new technologies which they say could extract more lithium – a key ingredient for electric vehicle (EV) batteries – from South America’s vast, dry salt flats with lower environmental impacts.
But environmentalists question whether the expensive technology is ready to be rolled out at scale, while scientists warn it could worsen the depletion of scarce freshwater resources in the region and say more research is needed.
The “lithium triangle” – an area spanning Argentina, Bolivia and Chile – holds more than half of the world’s known lithium reserves. Here, lithium is found in salty brine beneath the region’s salt flats, which are among some of the driest places on Earth.
Lithium mining in the region has soared, driven by booming demand to manufacture batteries for EVs and large-scale energy storage.
Mining companies drill into the flats and pump the mineral-rich brine to the surface, where it is left under the sun in giant evaporation pools for 18 months until the lithium is concentrated enough to be extracted.
https://www.climatechangenews.com/2025/10/13/efforts-to-green-lithium-extraction-face-scrutiny-over-water-use/
