Lithium mining, water resources, and socio-economic issues in northern Argentina: We are not all in the same boat

Walter Fernando Díaz Paz, Melisa Escosteguy, Lucas Seghezzo, Marc Hufty, Eduardo Kruse and Martín Alejandro Iribarnegaray

Resources Policy, 2023, vol. 81, issue C

Abstract: Lithium mining in Argentina is often associated to social injustices, unequal access to information, and conflicts around issues such as water consumption. Different stakeholders hold different perceptions around the pros and cons of lithium mining. We identify here concerns regarding water resources, technical aspects of lithium mining, and social and economic aspects in four different sources of information: (1) Scientific articles; (2) Government reports; (3) Corporate reports; and (4) Newspaper articles. We found differences between the groups of documents analyzed. Scientific and newspaper articles share a wide spectrum of issues. Corporate and government reports are more focused and relate more heavily to social and economic aspects. Socio-technical issues, frequent in government reports and the media, do not seem relevant in corporate reports. Concerns about water resources and lithium mining are most prominent in scientific and newspaper articles. Government reports were the least concerned about water and the socio-environmental impacts of lithium mining, but focused on global markets, employment and technical development. Analyzing stakeholders’ concerns in the Argentine Puna region can help reveal power structures, connections, and discourses across different sectors and scales.

Keywords: Argentina; Energy transition; Lithium mining; Salt flats; Water resources (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jrpoli:v:81:y:2023:i:c:s0301420722007310

DOI: 10.1016/j.resourpol.2022.103288

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