Geoforum 119 (2021) 177–189

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Geoforum
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/geoforum

Harvesting Lithium: water, brine and the industrial dynamics of production

in the Salar de Atacama
Beatriz Bustos-Gallardo a, Gavin Bridge b, Manuel Prieto c, *
a
Departamento de Geografía, Facultad de Arquitectura y Urbanismo, Universidad de Chile, Portugal 84, Santiago, Chile
b
Department of Geography, Durham University, Durham DH1 3LE, United Kingdom
c
Departamento de Ciencias Históricas y Geográficas, Universidad de Tarapacá, Avenida 18 de Septiembre, 2222 Arica, Chile

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Geographical research on lithium and other renewable energy materials explores the geopolitical dimensions of
Lithium resource supply and the ’new geographies’ associated with an expanding resource frontier. The material char­
Eco-regulation acteristics and environmental conditions of lithium production, however, are largely overlooked in this
Capitalization
perspective. In the context of a global speculative boom for lithium linked to its growing role in energy storage,
Ecological contradiction
Flexibility
this paper adopts a grounded, exploratory approach to investigate the dynamics of production and resource
Atacama management at one of the world’s most significant sources of lithium: the brine deposits of the Atacama Salt
Flat/Salar de Atacama in northern Chile. We show how lithium production from brine has a distinctive ’eco-
regulatory’ character as it involves managing a series of hydrogeological conditions and physical processes that
are largely external to capital. The paper highlights the infrastructures (pumps, pipes, ponds) associated with the
harvesting of lithium from brine and examines how production on the salar generates a series of ecological
contradictions (notably around water depletion) with potential to disrupt accumulation. We also examine the
multiple flexibilities afforded by the eco- regulatory character of production, and show how these enable lithium
producers to adapt fixed infrastructures to dynamic political economic conditions. By focusing on both contra­
dictions and flexibilities of lithium production, the paper draws attention to trajectories of capitalisation in the
lithium value chain and their environmental consequences; and considers the political-economic incentives
shaping further capitalisation. The paper concludes by considering the implications of this exploratory case study
for critical resource geography.

1. Introduction These and other lithium-ion battery facilities are designed to serve rising
demand for electric traction (e.g. electrically powered cars, scooters and
Decarbonisation of the global energy system, characterised by a buses), and for energy storage at domestic, utility and grid-scale linked
large-scale shift to renewables and electrification of end uses such as to the expanding role of renewables in electricity supply (Jaffe 2017,
power and transportation, will require the extraction and processing of a Roskill 2017, Olivetti et al. 2017).
wide range of raw materials. The material demands of decarbonisation Our interest in this paper is not the battery revolution per se, but in
are now widely acknowledged, and the past few years have seen understanding the political ecological consequences of surging lithium
increased attention - from investors, technologists and critical geogra­ demand for locations that host lithium extraction and processing facil­
phers alike - in a broad suite of ‘e-tech’ materials closely associated with ities (or have the potential to do so). Rising lithium prices between 2015
the provision of low-carbon energy including a range of so-called ‘bat­ and 2018 drove the formation of multiple new companies to acquire and
tery minerals’ (IRENA 2019, Mulvaney 2019, Klinger 2018). Among develop lithium reserves; existing lithium producers sought to ramp up
them is lithium, a light metal element with multiple applications in production; and downstream users in the battery value chain experi­
stationary and portable energy storage. Global production capacity for enced increasing competition to secure reliable sources of high quality
lithium-ion batteries is growing rapidly, exemplified by Tesla’s Giga­ supply. Prices have halved since 2018, however, as supply grew ahead of
factory in Nevada and BYD’s recently constructed facility in Chongqing. demand and China (the largest market) recalibrated its support for

* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: [email protected] (B. Bustos-Gallardo), [email protected] (G. Bridge), [email protected] (M. Prieto).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2021.01.001
Received 19 February 2020; Received in revised form 31 December 2020; Accepted 4 January 2021
Available online 22 January 2021
0016-7185/© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
B. Bustos-Gallardo et al. Geoforum 119 (2021) 177–189

electric vehicles. The recent history of lithium, then, exhibits some of the Atacama to overcome these contradictions by capitalising some of the
classic features of a speculative resource boom in which expectations of ecological conditions of production.
demand in advance of supply churn together capital, property, materials Second, the paper’s critical resource geography approach to lithium
and labour in a ‘cyclonic’ frenzy (Innis 1946, Barnes 2002, Keeling production significantly extends the range of geographical tools for
2010). To date, there has been relatively little research into the conse­ understanding emerging geographies of lithium (and, by extension,
quences of the lithium boom (or bust) for sites of extraction, or in un­ other e-tech minerals). Recent research on lithium in both the technical
derstanding how ‘demand’ articulates with the political–ecological and social science literature already reflects a broad geographical sen­
conditions of places that host lithium reserves. In response, this paper sibility. Work by Narins (2017: 322), for example, argues that the
adopts a grounded approach to explore the dynamics of production and growing “social value of lithium has contributed to (an) increased
resource management at one of the world’s most significant sources of consumption-production imbalance which lays at the heart of contem­
lithium: the brine deposits of the Salar de Atacama in northern Chile porary competition for lithium resources.” Other work similarly de­
(Fig. 1). Our exploratory study seeks to understand how the dynamics of scribes the geographical concentration of supply and demand, and the
industrial production (the process through which lithium is separated global-scale geographies of trade and investment associated with the
from its background conditions, purified and concentrated as a raw battery supply chain (Barandiarán, 2019, Sun 2017, Olivetti et al. 2017,
material for input into battery manufacture) are accommodated to the Moreno-Brieva and Marín 2019). Several authors have also stressed the
physical environment of the lithium reserve. Research like this is place-based social and environmental impacts of lithium exploitation
particularly relevant considering the proliferation of ‘green imaginaries’ and the conflict with surrounding indigenous communities (Agusdinata
related to lithium, as an abundant source of clean energy that can sub­ et al., 2018; Babidge, 2013, 2016; Babidge et al., 2019; Liu et al., 2019;
stitute for fossil fuels in transportation and preserve norms of Liu and Agusdinata, 2020; Jerez, 2018).
automobility. In our view, however, these accounts offer a rather restricted
Our analysis of the reciprocal relations between industrial dynamics geographical reading of the rapidly growing lithium economy as they
and hydrogeological conditions of lithium production on the Salar de are limited to establishing the location of demand and supply, quanti­
Atacama contributes to the growing field of critical resource geography. fying forms of spatial connection (e.g. trade flows, dependence on im­
Specifically, our account articulates three of this field’s principle con­ ports), or assessing ecological impacts and conflicts with local actors
cerns: it (i) understands lithium reserves as a form of ‘produced nature’ (mainly indigenous communities). Our aim is to complement current
constituted through capacities that are neither fully social nor fully non- work by developing a richer account of lithium production as an econ­
human (Bakker and Bridge 2006, Irarrázaval and Bustos-Gallardo omy centred on natural processes, harnessing geographical arguments
2019); (ii) investigates empirically the reciprocal and dynamic char­ for the production of nature and conceptual insights from critical
acter of relations between practices of production and ‘ecological’ (i.e. resource geography (Himley et al. 2020). The remainder of the paper is
physical environmental) conditions on the salar, attentive to how these organised into four sections. Section 2 provides a brief orientation to the
create both obstacles and opportunities for capital circulation (Boyd production and consumption of lithium, and describes the field research
et al. 2001, Henderson 1998, Castree 1997; Delgado 2017); and (iii) on which the paper’s analysis is based. Section 3 introduces relevant
acknowledges the technological, institutional and discursive mecha­ literature in critical resource geography and sets up the exploratory case
nisms through which lithium is dissociated from other physical and that follows in Section 4. Section 5 concludes.
social contexts and made an object of economic and political power
(Merchant 1980, Richardson and Weszkalnys 2014; also Sanchez-Lopez 2. Placing lithium: A brief history of lithium’s growing
2019 in relation to lithium in Bolivia). embeddedness in energy storage
In bringing these conceptual tools to the problem of e-tech mineral
sourcing, the paper makes two contributions. First, it shows in a Although industrial uses of lithium in ceramics and lubricants have a
conceptually-informed and empirically-grounded way how lithium long history, applications to energy storage were first pioneered in the
production from the Salar de Atacama requires managing a series of 1970s in the context of the US space programme. The current ‘specu­
physical conditions and processes that are largely external to capital. lative moment’ surrounding lithium is fuelled by growing demand for
These ‘ecological conditions of production’ (Benton 1989; O’Connor, energy storage systems at a wide range of scales, associated with the
1991) include the hydrogeology of brine formation, variations in lithium replacement of internal combustion engines by electric mobility, and the
content within the three-dimensional space of the salar, and the rate of growing role of electricity generation from renewable (i.e. flow) re­
solar insolation. We show how lithium production on the salar involves sources like wind and solar (which, in turn, is fed by the rapidly falling
optimising these naturally-given environmental conditions so that costs of renewable generation) (Moreno-Brieva and Marín 2019). The
value-adding transformations occur; and how, consequently, lithium is energy storage capabilities of lithium, engineered in the form of lithium-
‘harvested1’ in a process that is more akin to agriculture than either a ion batteries, offer a tantalising opportunity to address the long-running
classic extractive process (in which lithium is taken from the environ­ challenge for electricity networks of aligning supply and demand in real
ment in a ready-made form) or an industrial process of transforming raw time. Historically, the prohibitive cost of storing electrical energy have
material into finished product. We explore the implications of this meant electricity producers install generating capacity sufficient to meet
ecologically-embedded and “eco-regulatory” (Benton 1989) character of peaks in demand (with capacity under-utilised for much of the time),
lithium production for resource management, in the context of a spec­ and have made it difficult to incorporate intermittent flow sources like
ulative boom in lithium demand. Specifically, we highlight how brine is wind and solar. The larger storage capacity of lithium ion batteries, their
a flexible resource whose processing can be adapted (temporally, speed of re-charge, and their lower cost on a per unit of energy basis
spatially, volumetrically, and chemically) to market conditions; we have enabled the development of ‘mega-batteries’ (i.e. 100 or more
show how producing lithium from brine creates a series of contradic­ megawatts, equivalent to a small power station) such as Tesla’s giant
tions (notably around water depletion) that must be managed if they are battery in South Australia, lowering energy costs and reducing the risk of
not to disrupt accumulation; and we highlight emerging efforts in the blackouts.
Initial development of the lithium ion battery value chain was largely
consumer driven, with the pace and scale of uptake shaped by end uses
1
The harvest concept is also used by lithium companies, technical reports, such as portable electronics (Zicari, 2016; Fletcher 2011). Recent ap­
social movements, state agencies, etc. to describe the production processes plications of lithium ion batteries to transport and electrical grid power
performed by the firms in the salt flat (see Cochilco 2015; SQM 2015; Jerez storage, however, are largely policy driven and derivative of support for
2018). electrical vehicles and the growing penetration of (intermittent)

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B. Bustos-Gallardo et al. Geoforum 119 (2021) 177–189

Fig. 1. Map showing location of the Salar de Atacama and key sites.

renewables in electricity supply. For example, China’s recent decision to development in the sector has focused primarily on extending battery
scale back subsidies for buyers of EVs (in an effort to drive innovation) life and reducing charging time, rather than recycling of battery mate­
saw global EV sales fall for the first time, weakening lithium demand and rials. However, a marked shift in the scale of lithium recovery could
precipitating the bankruptcy of at least one new lithium producer (FT significantly reduce demand for new lithium supply.2
2019, Bloomberg 2019). More broadly, expectations of future demand
are fed by green growth scenarios, and discourses of clean development
2.1. Sourcing and mobilising lithium
and the green economy advocated by international organisations like
the United Nations, OECD, UNEP, European Union, and other trade
Concerns about lithium scarcity prompted by rising demand have
agencies which stress a “technological transformation by scaling up
been widely discounted: reserves are large relative to demand, their
clean technologies” (UN DESA 2011, cited in Brand 2012:29). The
global distribution is less concentrated than for other minerals, and
current speculative moment surrounding lithium, then, is under-cut by
lithium is substitutable in many applications (Olivetti et al. 2017; USGS
uncertainties about the future focus of energy and environmental policy
and the direction of technological innovation. While lithium is currently
dominant in the electricity storage sector, rapid innovation means there 2
New recycling technologies are anticipated to reduce costs and expand the
is no consensus it will be the battery mineral of choice tomorrow. There
market for recycled materials by 2030 (according to a report by the London-
are additional uncertainties about the potential for lithium recovery
based Circular Energy Storage (CES), see Willuhn 2019).
post-use that weigh on lithium producers: rates of lithium recycling are
currently low (less than 5% in the EU) and lithium’s low value as a
proportion of the total battery (compared to cobalt, for example) offers
little financial incentive for lithium recovery. To date, technology

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B. Bustos-Gallardo et al. Geoforum 119 (2021) 177–189

2019; Mineria Chilena 2018; Lebedeva et al. 2016).3 Lithium occurs in 2014 and 2020. He gathered qualitative data based on his personal
sufficiently high level of concentration and quality for commercial experience and interviews with local actors (indigenous leaders, scien­
exploitation in two forms: liquid brines and hard rock deposits. In the tists working in the area, everyday water users), and site visits. Finally,
former, lithium is sourced by pumping saline groundwater and we categorized, systematized, integrated, and analyzed data through
extracting its dissolved lithium content; in the latter, sources of the conceptual mapping techniques and iterative theoretical discussions
mineral spodumene are mined and processed from granitic rocks.4 These regarding the materiality of brine/lithium production, beginning in the
two processes are qualitatively different, influencing the spatial and field and evolving in the face of new evidence.
socio-ecological forms that lithium extraction takes, the speed at which While we acknowledge the limits of a single case study for general­
facilities can be constructed, processing times and overall production isation, we embrace its capacity to develop a conceptual understanding
costs. Over half of the world’s lithium reserves are concentrated in South of complex phenomena (Yin 2018). In adopting a method widely used in
America, primarily in the form of brines within the “Lithium Triangle” (a critical resource geography, our goal is to theorise the practices that
region of the Andes including parts of Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile - see sustain lithium production from brine in one of the most water-scarce
Fig. 1). Most of the world’s hard rock reserves of lithium are in Australia environments on earth. We do not presume to make global claims
and China, with smaller amounts in Zimbabwe, Portugal, Brazil and the regarding lithium extraction: on the contrary, we believe our concep­
US. Brine sources have significantly lower overall production costs, with tualization of the eco-regulatory and partially capitalised character of
Chilean sources having some of the lowest costs worldwide. However, lithium production opens interesting paths for critical resource
recent brine developments (e.g. Orocobre’s Olaroz operation in geography.
Argentina) indicate they can be significantly slower to bring into full
production than hard rock mines, in large part because production is 3. Critical resource geography and industrial dynamics
reliant on ambient evaporation rather than rock milling (TSX 2018).
Consequently, hard rock sources of lithium based on mining the mineral Drawing on early work in critical resource geography, we approach
spodumene have been growing in significance. the Salar de Atacama as a key ‘pressure point’ in a rapidly accelerating
Australia is the world’s largest lithium producer, producing 60% of social metabolism of lithium closely tied to the global value chain for
global supply from three active mines. Chile, the second largest pro­ batteries (Benton 1989, Bridge 2000). Our focus is on understanding the
ducer, accounts for around 19% of global supply, all of which is ’ecological conditions’5 that sustain lithium production in the Salar de
extracted from brine at the country’s two major operations in the Ata­ Atacama, and the extent to which the production of this resource is tied
cama (SQM-Tianqi and Albemarle). Elsewhere in the Lithium Triangle, to processes that remain uncapitalised (or only partially capitalised).
Argentina currently produces around a third of the volume of Chile from Our focus on the ecological conditions of production also extends to the
two brine operations (Olaroz and Mina Felix). Bolivia has substantial consequences for water resource management of efforts to wring value
lithium reserves and production is focused on the Salar de Uyuni, the from the salar via lithium production.
world’s largest salt flat. State ownership and control of minerals are Conceptually our analysis is informed by three bodies of work that
established in Bolivia’s 2003 Constitution and, over the last decade, the have had a formative influence on critical resource geography. First, we
state has implemented policies with the aim of developing a lithium- take seriously the ‘nature-facing’ character of lithium production by
related industrial sector, including a plant for battery production with focussing on the material and ecological processes through which
support from Chinese investors in 2014. However, recent political tradeable lithium compounds are produced from naturally-occurring
turmoil has increased uncertainty and plans to build plants with German brine. An early foundation for critical resource geography was work in
and Chinese capital cancelled in 2019 after social pressure. China, the the historical materialist tradition highlighting important structural
largest market for battery-grade lithium, is also a substantial lithium differences between the appropriation of nature in extraction and the
producer and currently has about half the output of Chile. Some of transformation of raw materials in manufacturing (Bunker 1988). This
China’s output is sourced from brines in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and research established a heuristically useful (although not analytically
some from spodumene hard rock deposits in Sichuan. definitive) distinction between the nature of labour in agriculture and
Having identified the context in which lithium demand is rapidly mining (Boyd et al. 2001). Foundational work by Benton (1989: 67), for
growing, and outlined the broad material conditions in which lithium is example, distinguished ‘eco-regulatory’ forms of labour, deployed “to
produced, the remainder of the paper adopts an exploratory case study sustain or regulate the environmental conditions under which seed or
approach to one of the key sources of lithium: the Salar de Atacama in stock animals grow,” from the work of primary appropriation (e.g.
Chile which hosts two large operations (SQM-Tianqi and Albemarle). mining). While there are transformative moments to both these labour
We focus on the sourcing of lithium from brine to capture the materiality processes, eco-regulatory labour has a different ‘intentional structure’
of a process dominating lithium production in South America; and to because “the transformations are brought about by naturally given
examine how production is adapted to the material and ecological organic mechanisms, not by the application of human labour” (Benton
conditions of the Atacama. We gathered data during two field visits to 1989: 67). Benton’s characterisation of eco-regulation as a distinctive
SQM’s operations on the Salar de Atacama (in 2018 and 2019, where we form of productive practice continues to have analytical value, although
held discussions with the operators and toured the facilities). We his wider critique of Marx’s concept of the labour process has been
reviewed documents available at the documentation centers and digital subsequently challenged (Burkett 1998). In particular, it draws attention
repositories of several state agencies (e.g., National Water Agency, to how labour is “devoted to optimising and maintaining the conditions
Corfo, National Geology, and Mining Service, Environmental Assess­ under which some organic transformations take place” (Benton 1992:
ment Service, Chilean Nuclear Energy Commission) to obtain technical, 60); and that, accordingly, the spatial and temporal distribution of
historical, economic and institutional data on the lithium industry in
Chile. Our analysis is also informed by data collected by one of the au­
thors [redacted for review] who lived in the Salar de Atacama between 5
A term drawn from left-green thought (e.g. O’Connor 1988, Grundmann
1991, Leff 1994, Toledo 1992) encompassing a wide range of uncosted (or
partially costed) environmental services that support the process of commodity
3
For this reason, lithium is not among the ‘critical raw materials’ listed by production. The term expands Marxian analysis of the driving tension internal
the EU (2017), although it is likely to become part of an updated 2020 list to commodity production (between the forces and relations of production) to
because of the growing significance of EV battery manufacturing to EU indus­ also include tensions between forces/relations and the contextual conditions
trial strategy (Euractiv 2020). under which the physical environment is incorporated into production (Bridge
4
Spodumene is a lithium aluminium inosilicate, LiAl(SiO3)2 2000).

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B. Bustos-Gallardo et al. Geoforum 119 (2021) 177–189

labour is “to a high degree shaped by the contextual conditions of the of how the optimisation of ecological conditions upon which commer­
labour process and by the rhythms of organic developmental processes” cial lithium harvesting depends creates a series of tensions and risks with
(1989: 67–8). In short, his analysis draws attention to eco-regulatory the potential to disrupt accumulation (Araghi, 2009; Bridge, 2000;
practices’ unusual degree of dependence on “the characteristics of Bustos-Gallardo and Irarrazaval, 2016).
their contextual conditions… (and how) these elements in the process Third, our understanding of how the ecological conditions of the
are relatively impervious to intentional manipulation and in some re­ Salar de Atacama shape strategies of lithium production is informed by a
spects are absolutely non-manipulable” (Benton 1989: 68). small but growing interest in critical resource geography in the ‘flexi­
Contemporary resource geography has inherited a rich analytical bility’ of production strategies in agriculture and mining. ‘Flexibility’
repertoire in this area. It includes work paying close attention to the here references the adaptability of key productive assets to external
temporal disjuncture between production time and labour time in eco- events, and acknowledges how production strategies in nature-facing
regulatory activities like agriculture and forestry (Mann and Dickinson sectors are often adapted to accommodate the ecologically-embedded
1978: Mann 1990; Henderson 1998) where for long periods of time character of production. Knapp (2016), for example, shows how the
capital is “abandoned to the sway of natural processes” (Marx 1885) hard rock mining sector has evolved to accommodate a series of
such as plant and animal growth; and the influences on the labour ecologically-based constraints on extraction. She identifies three “reg­
process of the spatial form of eco-regulation and primary appropriation isters of flexibility: spatial, temporal and interpretational” through
(Prudham 2005; Page 1996). Research on ‘industrial dynamics’ in which mining firms have sought to address the geo-spatial fixity of
resource geography, for example, has focused on the ways in which the mineral deposits, the challenge of resource scarcity and localised
embeddedness of production in physical, chemical and biological con­ depletion, and the environmental consequences of extraction (Knapp
ditions is variously an ‘obstacle, opportunity and surprise’ to capital 2016: 1890). For Knapp, flexibility is a broad and exploratory concept
(Boyd et al. 2001; cf. Benton 1992; Henderson 1998, Delgado 2017). that folds together a range of different strategic and institutional actions,
Several authors have theorised this relationship, and its mediation blurring “the boundaries between extraction, production,
through technology, as a process of ‘subsumption’, drawing attention to manufacturing, consumption and disposal” and materialising in the
qualitative differences in the way capital brings external conditions form of the ‘flexible mine’ (2016: 1889). We share Knapp’s interest in
under its control. In an early and influential statement on industrial the adaptive re-tooling of mining assets in the service of accumulation,
dynamics, Boyd et al. (2001) distinguish between the formal and real although we use flexibility in a more concrete way in relation to the
subsumption of nature: the former involves expanding throughput extraction of lithium from brine. Specifically, we explore the analytical
without a qualitative change in how biophysical processes are harnessed potential of flexibility for understanding the capacity of brine (and
(a strategy characteristic of inorganic sectors like mining), whereas the dedicated production infrastructure) to produce multiple commodities
latter involves intervening in biological processes to take hold of them under different market conditions; and the discursive mutability of
directly as a productive force, so that they can be sped up, steered or materials extracted from the salar within resource regulation and policy.
otherwise optimised for commodity production. Recent work has pro­ In agrarian studies there has been an interesting debate about ‘flex-
blematized this inorganic/organic distinction to explore how real sub­ crops’ linked to a similarly speculative moment, in which farmers across
sumption may extend to the extractive sector (Delgado 2017, Boyd and the world turned to crops that could serve multiple markets (i.e. were
Prudham 2017). Labban (2014), for example, has shown how some interchangeable as either food or fuel) in the context of policy-driven
classically extractive activities can also involve the subsumption of demand for renewable energy (Gillon 2016, Borras et al, 2016).6
biochemical processes, such as the ‘biomining’ of gold ores by bacterial Ensuing debate over flex-crops has focused on the distributional effects
oxidation. Indeed, this paper takes up Labban’s recommendation (2014: of flexibility (e.g. whether producers or consumers have been the pri­
573) that studies of resources extend their focus using such conceptual mary beneficiaries) which has shifted attention away from examining
tools “to comprehend better the emerging materiality and spatio tem­ how flexibility is shaped by the ecologically-embedded character of
porality of capitalist extraction.” production. Our goal in taking up the concept of flexibility, therefore, is
Second, in seeking to understand the ecological and material con­ to train its insight into the adaptability of production on this under-
ditions of lithium production we mobilise the concept of ecological examined question, exploring the interconnections between the flexi­
contradiction. Pioneered by O’Connor (1991), the concept of ecological bilities of brine and the ecological conditions of brine/lithium
contradiction draws attention to capital’s tendency to under-produce (i. production.
e. over-exploit) the ecological conditions on which production and Our argument unfolds in three steps in the following section. First,
accumulation depend. It therefore both describes a structural tension we focus on the industrial process of lithium production from brine,
between economic strategy and ecological appropriation and, at the identifying the surprising extent to which this large-scale industrial
same time, positions this tension as a potential source of accumulation process relies on physical environmental conditions that are external to
crisis - a ‘second contradiction of capitalism’ on a par with the wage capital and specific to the Atacama Desert. We emphasise the ‘eco-reg­
relation (O’Connor 1991). Research in critical resource geography on ulatory’ character of lithium production from brine and how it is more
capital circulation in ecologically-embedded sectors like aquaculture like agriculture than conventional mining. Second, we outline the way in
(Bustos-Gallardo and Irarrazaval 2016), mining (Bridge 2000) and fossil which the ecologically embedded character of lithium production from
fuels (Clark and Foster 2009) has harnessed the analytical power of brine generates a series of structural tensions between the technologies/
ecological contradiction to show how capital and nature confront each infrastructures of extraction and ecological conditions in which they are
other in these sectors, and how capital’s reliance on natural processes deployed (and on which they depend). We interpret these tensions as
(and their systematic underproduction by capital over time) can mani­ ecological contradictions, illustrate them via reference to water deple­
fest as a wider ecological crisis. Here the notion of contradiction high­ tion, and show their potential to undermine the profitability of extrac­
lights the “self-destructive appropriation of labour power, urban tion on the salar. Third, we describe how lithium producers harness the
infrastructure and external nature” (O’Connor 1998: 177), and the ef­ flexibilities of brine to reproduce political–ecological conditions
forts of both capital and the state to forestall the expression of contra­
diction in a crisis of accumulation. We find critical resource geography’s
work with the concept of ecological contradiction instructive for 6
Flex crops have been defined as “crops and commodities that have multiple
thinking about the tensions inherent to industrial dynamics in a nature- uses… that can be, or are thought to be, flexibly inter-changed” (Gillon 2016:
based sector and, specifically, for understanding the ecologically- 118). For Borras et al. (2016) the degree of flexibility can be measured in two
embedded character of lithium production in the Salar de Atacama. ways: either at origin (one crop may be developed into multiple commodities)
Accordingly, we harness the concept to develop a geographical account or at the end (multiple uses may be simultaneously realized).

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B. Bustos-Gallardo et al. Geoforum 119 (2021) 177–189

conducive to accumulation. We also reflect on the limits to brine’s the case of SQM, mineral rights to lithium are still owned by CORFO and
flexibility, and consider how these relate to the ways in which brine/ are leased to the company; in the case of Albemarle, CORFO sold its
lithium production on the salar has been only partially capitalised. rights to the company which is now the sole owner of the lithium
deposits.8
4. Lithium production in the Salar de Atacama The areas around the salar are occupied by the Atacameños indige­
nous people, or Likan-antai, who are settled in villages at different
Chile is widely considered a radical example of laissez-faire ap­ altitudinal levels (Fig. 1), where they still develop agro-pastoralist
proaches to natural resource management, characterised by private practices, combined with wage labor (mainly in the different mining
property rights to resources, limited state regulation, and the use of companies in the area, including the lithium industry) and jobs in the
market instruments for reallocation (Liverman and Vilas 2006; Tecklin tourism sector.9 Mine operations in the salar have affected these com­
et al., 2011; Bauer 1998). Lithium, however, is something of an excep­ munities (e.g., limited access to old pastoral territory, pollution, impact
tion: despite the pro-market approach to mining development, Chile is in their water sources, rapid change to cultural practices, proletariza­
the only country to have reserved lithium to the state as a non- tion) (Babidge 2013). Besides, concessions are located in the land they
concessionable strategic mineral of national interest (Nem Singh 2010, claim as ancestral territory, creating disputes over the land and control
CEPAL 2015). Until 1979 lithium in Chile was regulated like any other of natural resources (Babidge 2013, Jerez 2018, Babidge et al., 2019).
mineral by the Mining Code of 1932 and, consequently, it could be This situation has been a driver of several ongoing and tense conflicts.10
privately owned without exceptional limitations. However, consider­
ation of lithium’s potential for use in nuclear fusion in the context of the 4.1. The eco-regulatory character of lithium production from brine
Cold War led the Chilean state to declare it a resource of national interest
following US recommendations (Decree-Law N 2886). The U.S. mining The industrial process of producing lithium from brine involves
company Anaconda had discovered lithium deposits in the Salar de pumping salty water from beneath the salar and concentrating it via
Atacama in the early 1960s, and the then Chilean National Institute for evaporation under ambient climatic conditions, a process that can be
Geological Research started to evaluate the technical feasibility and understood as a form of water mining (Garcés 2020). The process re­
economic potential of brine exploitation (e.g., potassium, lithium, quires managing a series of hydro-geological conditions and physical
magnesium, boron, sulfates). When this potential was confirmed in processes (such as evaporation) that are, to a great degree, external to
1977, the government granted mining rights over a large part of the salar capital: inputs of technology and labour are directed towards moni­
to the state economic development agency CORFO (Corporación de toring, sustaining or mediating physical environmental conditions that
Fomento de la Producción) to exploit brines and develop two indepen­ foster the isolation and progressive concentration of lithium into
dent projects: the Lithium Project (currently Albemarle) and the Potas­ commercially valuable quantities. Following Benton (1989), lithium
sium Salts and Boric Acid Project (currently SQM).7 extraction from brine can be understood as an eco-regulatory process: its
In the early 1980s, the military dictatorship started to impose a ‘intentional structure’ (to use Benton’s phrase) sees labour focused on
radical neoliberal model for managing resources. Within this context, monitoring and optimising the site-specific physical conditions of brine
the state passed new mining laws (the Mining Code and Organic concentration and evaporation, with the key transformations central to
Constitutional Law on Mining Concessions) that actively supported commodity production brought about by naturally given organic
private capital. Although the nuclear potential of lithium was discarded, mechanisms rather than human labour.
lithium continued to be categorised as a non-concessionable and stra­ To a large degree, lithium production on the Salar de Atacama relies
tegic resource with its exploitation and commercialization carefully on the particular hydrogeological and hydro-ecological features of the
regulated and controlled by the Chilean Nuclear Energy Commission. Atacama Desert. The desert’s exceptional topography and environ­
Under this model, only the state or state-owned companies could mental features produce a combination of physical conditions conducive
explore, exploit, produce, and trade lithium, including its derivatives to the formation of brine and its low-cost exploitation (Munk et al.
and compounds. Within this context, CODELCO (the state-owned copper 2016). First, volcanic activities, hydrothermal water sources, active
company) was granted several unexploited lithium concessions and tectonic processes, large and closed basins and a hyper-arid climate with
CORFO retained the concessions it had received prior to the new mining high radiation levels have facilitated the accumulation of massive, thick
code. evaporite deposits characterized by a high concentration of excellent
Notwithstanding the state’s active role in lithium and its reserved quality lithium (see details in Alonso et al. 1991, Salas et al. 2010).
character, lithium production was not completely nationalized. The Second, brine extraction is an evaporitic process that heavily relies on
dictatorship opened a space for manoeuvre that balanced its neoliberal natural evaporation rates (Flexer et al. 2018). The high levels of solar
political-economic model and the national character of lithium. The radiation, low humidity, high winds and high elevation of the Atacama
Chilean Constitution, established by the dictatorship in 1980, does not Desert combine to create some of the highest evaporation rates in the
explicitly prohibit private investments on lithium, opening the door for world which, together with low rates of precipitation, substantially re­
private participation in the whole commodity chain. Indeed, despite duces production costs (Sarricolea and Romero 2015).
being a strategic resource, lithium is currently exploited, explored, and The process for extracting lithium harnesses these core hydro­
traded by two private companies - Albemarle and SQM – which operate geological and hydro-ecological processes to achieve commercially
facilities initially granted by the state as a lithium concession (i.e. prior valuable concentrations of lithium. Production involves a series of hy­
to 1979) or that were granted a Special Lithium Operation Contract drological interventions that seek to foster and steward lithium avail­
(Contrato Especial de Operación de Litio). Thus, although lithium com­ ability within subsurface brines and, once pumped to the surface, to
panies in Chile originally had a mixed private–public character, between optimise lithium yield from brine at low-cost. These interventions are
1988 and 1995 they were fully privatized. After several mergers and summarized in Fig. 2 and elaborated below. Both sites of lithium
acquisitions, Albemarle and SQM have become the only companies
currently exploiting brines for lithium production. As a result of their
distinctive histories, these two companies are subject to different 8
For details about this process, see Lagos (2012) and Ebensperger et al.
exploitation regimes that regulate their relationship with the state: in (2005).
9
For a general synopsis of Atacameño livelihoods and cultural practices, see
Castro and Martínez (1996). For a general outline of the archaeological,
7
Initially this was 59,820 mining rights, although CORFO quickly renounced ethnohistorical, and historical context, see Nuñez (2007).
10
27,052 leaving only 32,768 which are the ones it maintains to this day. See details in Environmental Justice Atlas (2020).

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B. Bustos-Gallardo et al. Geoforum 119 (2021) 177–189

Fig. 2. The lithium-from-brine process on the Salar de Atacama.

extraction (SQM and Albemarle) are located in the southern part of the 4.2. Form, time and space: three ecological contradictions of producing
salar (see Fig. 1). At these sites, brine solutions containing approxi­ lithium-from-brine
mately 0.15% lithium concentration and 2.5% potassium concentration
(Talens et al. 2013) are pumped to the surface via an extensive network Here we introduce the concept of ecological contradiction to the
of wells from depths of 1.5–60 m under the crust of the salar. Once at the analysis, building on our prior discussion of lithium-from-brine as an
surface, brines from individual wells are blended via a very large eco-regulatory process. ‘Contradiction’ highlights the dual character of
network of surface pipes and poured into a sequence of large and productive relations with the salar: how the work of lithium producers to
shallow open-air evaporating ponds (see Figs. 3 and 4). In the first set of harness “naturally given organic mechanisms” (Benton 1989: 67) on the
ponds, potassium chloride is precipitated after approximately 6 to 9 salar at the same time undermines the physical and socio-political con­
months of evaporation. A further period of evaporation (approximately ditions that sustain profitability. Short-term actions by individual firms
4–5 months) in a second set of pools produces lithium concentrations of towards the physical environment of the salar in the pursuit of profit
approximately 6%. After lithium chloride reaches an optimum concen­ have the potential, over time, to erode the political–ecological condi­
tration and purity, it is harvested and transported 262 km by road to tions that initially facilitated capital accumulation via the extraction and
chemical plants offsite in Antofagasta for turning it into lithium hy­ processing of brine, both for individual producers and across the basin as
droxide and lithium carbonate and related end products.11 a whole (cf. Bridge 2000). The concept of ecological contradiction,
During the evaporation process across the two sets of ponds, therefore, allows us to examine how lithium production from brine is
numerous products are precipitated and obtained from brine (e.g. halite, prone to crisis, notwithstanding its eco-regulatory character; and it sets
sylvanite, sodium chloride, and carnallite). These products are treated as the stage to illustrate - in the next section - how lithium producers seek
commodities, byproducts or impurities according to market conditions. to harness some of the flexibilities of the eco-regulatory process to
After each set of evaporation pools, solutions are reinjected in the salar forestall expression of these ecological contradictions as a crisis of
in a process described by technicians as akin to making a “deposit in a profitability. We identify below three ecological contradictions associ­
lithium bank.” Indeed, by stewarding lithium availability via reinjec­ ated with the material form, temporal dynamics and spatiality of lithium
tion, SQM has reportedly increased lithium content in the vicinity of production from brine. We then (Section 4.3) illustrate some of the ways
extraction over time from 0.13% lithium in 1998 to 1.12% lithium in in which lithium producers are harnessing the flexibility of brine to
2016 (SQM, 2016). forestall the expression of these contradictions as a crisis of profitability.
As this brief description shows, the productivity of lithium extraction
from brine depends heavily on contextual physical conditions that Ecological Contradiction #1 (Form): The material form in which lithium
regulate the concentration of lithium in subsurface and surface brines. is extracted (i.e. as brine) requires water; but pumping and evaporation
The model of lithium production on the salar is incompletely capitalised are degrading the water balance in the salar, undermining future brine
as it relies very significantly on the hydrogeological processes of brine production
formation below the surface and the efficiency of ambient evaporation
rates. While technological interventions can modify some of these pro­ Lithium production is predicated on the extraction (via pumping) of
cesses (e.g. via the design of evaporation ponds, or via reinjection of lithium-containing brines from beneath the salar and their subsequent
solutions), key parts of the process - including brine concentration, evaporation/concentration on the surface. The isolation and recovery of
variability in the chemical composition of brine, and evaporation rates – commercially valuable quantities of lithium requires bringing large
are reliant on ambient hydrogeological and atmospheric hydro- quantities of liquid (the volumetric bulk of which is water) to the surface
ecological processes. and dispersing most of the water component to the atmosphere. In ef­
fect, lithium production from brine massively accelerates the natural
process of evaporation that contributed to the formation of the salar over
time. Like all extractive activity, the process of brine appropriation at
11
These include lithium carbonate (technical grade), lithium carbonate (bat­ the heart of the lithium production process contains the threat of
tery grade), lithium hydroxide (technical grade), lithium hydroxide (battery depletion. However, depletion emerges as an ecological contradiction in
grade), and concentrated and purified lithium chloride solution.

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B. Bustos-Gallardo et al. Geoforum 119 (2021) 177–189

Fig. 3. Satellite photograph of lithium evaporation ponds in the Salar de Atacama (Image obtained from Google Earth Pro 7.3.3.7786 (July 21, 2020). Antofagasta
Region, ON Chile. 23◦ 30’13.08"S, 68◦ 21’1.70"O, Eye alt 43.3 Km. Image©️2021 CNES/Airbus – Image©️2021 Maxar Technologies. <http://www.google.com/earth
/index.html> (Accessed January 13, 2021)).

this case not primarily because lithium production is ‘auto-consumptive’ (commissioned by what was then Corfo’s Non-Metallic Mining Com­
and depletes the capital base of the extractive enterprise (i.e. the mittee) concluded that outflows from the salar exceed inflows. While the
available supply of lithium from the salar), which is a common feature of regional water balance in the 1980s was stable, this equilibrium
mining. Rather, the contradiction emerges because of the dependence of changed radically in the 2000s when both brine pumping and freshwater
production on appropriating lithium in a material form (brine) that re­ extraction (by lithium and copper companies) increased significantly.
quires mobilizing and evaporating large quantities of water in one of the The report found that “in a natural regime, the inputs are similar to the
most arid regions on earth. The contradiction of depletion is expressed, outputs: 6810 L per second compared to an interval between 6575 and
therefore, in relation to the management and availability of water rather 6975 l/s, respectively. However, in a system influenced by anthropo­
than lithium. There are several specific expressions of this contradiction genic extractions, and for the period between 2000 and 2015, the out­
in relation to water, both at individual facilities and for the basin as a puts are greater than the inputs in the Salar de Atacama basin. Thus, the
whole. Most significantly, there is growing concern about the conse­ outflow reaches an average annual flow of between 8442 l/s and 8842 l/
quences of brine extraction on the regional water balance. Lithium s” (Amphos 21 2018: 82).
production from brine across the southern part of the salar has created
conditions of water deficit. An international consultancy report Ecological Contradiction #2 (Time): Reliance on the ‘free labour’ of the
(Amphos 21, 2018) on the hydrogeology of the Salar de Atacama sun facilitates low cost lithium production from brine (and high rates of

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B. Bustos-Gallardo et al. Geoforum 119 (2021) 177–189

Fig. 4. Lithium evaporation ponds.

profitability vs. hard rock mining); but dependence on the weather in­ depletion. In turn, if freshwater infiltrates the brine aquifer, it will dilute
troduces risk and uncertainty to the rate of production brines, affecting the lithium content of the reserves. How much fresh­
water will flow towards brine sources will depend on both the inter­
Firms producing lithium in the Salar de Atacama have invested in an connection between both aquifers and their permeability level (Flexer
evaporative infrastructure that takes advantage of the region’s particu­ et al. 2018, Houston et al., 2011). At the same time, this will determine
larly stable atmospheric conditions: with over 4000 h per year of sun­ the level of both environmental and productive impacts.
shine (2500 kwh per square meter average radiation), the intensity of
solar insolation contributes to much lower costs of lithium-from-brine 4.3. The flexibilities of brine: harnessing material heterogeneity and
than hard rock mining. Production costs for brine lithium in Chile are ontological ambiguity
estimated around US$3000/ton, compared to hard rock mining costs of
nearly 9000US$ per ton (Roskill 2017). Reliance on ambient atmo­ We have shown how there are significant structural tensions –
spheric conditions dictates the spatial form of lithium extraction (an expressed here using the language of ‘contradiction’ - between the
infrastructure of extensive, inter-connected open-air ponds). Turning technologies of extraction used on the salar and the ecological condi­
control of evaporation over to the sun also governs the temporality of tions of production. The same ‘ecological conditions’ of the salar,
lithium production from brine; gives lithium production a seasonal however, also offer lithium producers an important source of flexibility
character (lithium yields fall during the winter); and exposes the process as they seek to adapt fixed assets and infrastructures to dynamic
to weather-related risks, some of which may be exacerbated by growing political-economic conditions. These flexibilities enable produces to
climate variability (see Babidge et al. 2019). There is some scope for sustain lithium production from brine, in the face of its underlying
controlling evaporation rates via regulating the depth of brine and ecological contradictions, in two broad ways: (a) the materiality of the
lithium ponds, rate of pumping and chemistry of surface solutions. salar is harnessed by producers to adjust production to market condi­
However, full control of evaporation would require further capital­ tions; and (b) ontological ambiguity surrounding the character of the
isation in the form of innovation in new lithium recovery technologies ‘natural processes’ on which production relies is harnessed institution­
(Flexer et al. 2018) or, alternatively, its elimination altogether via the ally to secure an advantageous regulatory framework. We identify below
use of non-evaporative extractive technologies. However, the low costs four specific flexibilities of brine, based on observations in the field.
of production available to firms on the salar by “abandoning (produc­ These are of value to lithium producers on the salar as they seek to adapt
tion) to the sway of natural processes” (Marx 1885) (i.e. the sun) work to political-economic conditions and address potential crises of
against any direct incentive for firms to embrace major technological accumulation.
change. First, the natural processes of brine formation create a heterogeneous
brine reserve, characterised by spatial and volumetric variation in the
Ecological Contradiction #3 (Space): An expansion of pumping is concentration of lithium, potassium, sodium, magnesium and other
necessary to maintain production; but expanding pumping changes the salts. Lithium producers harness this variation as a source of hydro-
density of brine and puts lithium reserves at risk. geochemical flexibility: producers are able to optimise lithium recov­
ery by selecting and blending brines from different parts of the salar.
The lithium production process demands the redistribution of brines Significant capital outlay is required to access this flexibility, however,
in the salar. When brine is pumped from below the surface, it is moved in the form of multiple pumps (over 300 at the SQM facility), pipe
from a large underground area to shallow pools on the surface where networks (totalling hundreds of kilometres) to enable movement of
evaporation increases the brinés density. This redistribution has two brine across the surface from different locations on the salar, and a high
effects: first, the increasing density of the brine in the evaporation pools resolution hydrogeochemical monitoring network that models salt dis­
means the pools’ content becomes heavier; and, second, the process of tributions in three dimensions and over time. In short, the eco-
pumping produces a depression cone around the well (depleting the regulatory character of lithium production from brine creates an
water table and reducing pressure around the wells). The combination of ‘intentional structure’ in which investment is channelled towards har­
these effects, in turn, causes the superficial brines to sink (see details in nessing natural variation in core processes as a source of operational
Flexer et al. 2018). In addition, extension of the depression cone through flexibility.
the salar can lead to it contacting the boundary with freshwater sources: Second, by varying the rate and longevity of evaporation, brine can
when this happens, further pumping will cause an influx of fresh water be managed to yield not only lithium but also several intermediary
to replace the volumes of water removed through pumping brines products including potassium chloride, potassium sulfate, boric acid and
(Houston et al., 2011). This effect will have both environmental and magnesium chloride. Brine, then, has a material ambiguity under con­
productive impacts (Flexer et al. 2018). ditions of evaporation that offers producers a way of managing market
If fresh water flows towards the brine aquifer, the freshwater aquifer risks associated with demand for specific products: for example, the
will diminish, causing severe ecological effects related to water evaporation process can be optimised for either potassium production

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(an intermediate product for the fertiliser market) or for lithium. Indeed, underground chemical injection.
the ambiguous materiality of brine regarding intermediate product We can see here, then, how the material duality of water vs. brine –
markets has shaped the organisational evolution of SQM from an in­ which finds expression in the insistence by lithium companies that “it’s
dustrial chemicals company in the 1990s (whose products targeted the not water, it’s brine” when referring to extracted liquids12 - sustains
agricultural market for fertilisers) into one of the world’s major ex­ current production processes on the salar: classing all liquid extraction
porters of lithium carbonate for the battery sector. At the extreme, the as water would bring lithium production to a halt. The interpretative
material ambiguity of brine also potentially provides brine producers flexibility that allows brine extraction to be classed as ‘not water’ masks
with a way to manage risks associated with the availability of water. an underlying contradiction associated with the production of water
Because the quality of the lithium solution at the end of the process is deficit in the salar, and forestalls its eruption as a crisis for lithium
positively related to the amount of time brines are exposed to evapo­ producers. The contradiction of water depletion is not solved by this
ration, the lower level of evaporation required to produce intermediary flexibility in any final sense, however, but rather is displaced into con­
products offers producers a way to extend commercial exploitation of flicts with other land users and land uses.
the salt flat under conditions of water scarcity. Finally, the reliance of lithium-from-brine on contextual evaporation
Third, the eco-regulatory character of lithium production also offers enables lithium producers to strategically position the process as one in
other sources of flexibility that are partly ‘interpretational’ in nature which the “sun does the labour” – i.e. a natural process more akin to
(Knapp 2016). These are no less significant in sustaining production on agriculture than conventional mining. Stressing the nature-based, eco-
the salar than the ability to manage the chemistry of brine: they are regulatory character of production has value for lithium producers,
arguably more fundamental, as they go to the heart of managing water particularly in the regional context of the Atacama Desert which hosts
in one of the world’s most arid environments. At issue here is the reg­ several very large copper mines adopting conventional extractive tech­
ulatory status of the liquids that lithium producers extract from a niques. In this context, lithium producers differentiate themselves by
hydrogeologically integrated basin and, specifically, whether these liq­ styling their activity not as extraction but as harvesting - a process
uids are classified and regulated as water (abstracted in large volumes geared towards enhancing lithium yield from a natural, solar-driven
from a water-scarce environment) or as brine. In the context of growing process.
concern over the effects of brine removal on the regional water balance,
the regulatory classification of ‘brine’ (versus ‘water’) is integral to the 4.4. Between flexibility and contradiction: trajectories of capitalisation in
ability of lithium producers to continue pumping (and forestalling the Chile’s lithium value chain
effects of regional water depletion on lithium production). Lithium
producers pump liquids from beneath the salar to feed the evaporation The material and interpretational flexibilities of brine exemplify how
ponds: these liquids are technically and politically classed as ‘brine’ the direct confrontation with biophysical processes in resource sectors
rather than water and, consequently, firms extracting brine are not can offer particular opportunities for the owners of capital (Boyd et al.
required to obtain water rights for this part of the process (the legal 2001). In this case, the flexibilities of brine offer the owners of fixed
mechanism through which other water users in the area, including infrastructure on the salar opportunities to protect its value in the
mining companies and indigenous communities, must obtain access to context of market and regulatory risk. However, the process of pro­
water). At the SQM facility in the south of the salar, for example, 85% of ducing lithium-from-brine is not infinitely flexible: there are constraints
the liquid extracted for use in lithium production is not classed as water on how far the prevailing pattern/form of fixed infrastructure (pumps,
(Table 1). This distinction enables firms to frame brine pumping as an pipes and evaporating ponds) on the salar can be ‘flexed’ to sustain
action independent from freshwater extraction, and claim it has no ef­ accumulation. For example, most of the flexibilities outlined in Section
fect on the hydrogeological or ecological balance of the basin. Indeed, in 4.3 entrench (rather than restructure) the process of water mining on
a recent interview Albemarle’s Country Manager, affirmed that which lithium production from brine depends.
The relationship between flexibility and the underlying ecological
The lithium production process uses virtually no freshwater. Albe­
contradictions of production is, in part, a question of capitalisation. The
marle uses less than 0.5% of the water used in the Basin, which is
flexibilities of lithium-from-brine are a function of how this process has
mainly used for washing equipment. Our processes use brine that has
been historically capitalised: current patterns of capitalisation create
no alternative use either for human consumption or for agriculture.
flexibilities that enable producers to adjust output to political economic
This water is ten times saltier than seawater. To affirm that the water
conditions, but they also constrain flexibility in significant ways. The
that is evaporated from the lithium production ponds is responsible
conceptual distinction between formal and real subsumption of nature is
for the water shortage is equivalent to affirming that the thousands of
useful for approaching this question of capitalisation in relation to the
square meters of water that are evaporated daily in the ocean in front
ecologically-embedded character of lithium production (Boyd et al.
of Antofagasta are responsible for the water shortage in the city or
2001). Lithium from brine can be interpreted as an example of the real
the coast in general (El Mercurio de Antofagasta, 2020)
subsumption of nature: the evaporative infrastructure of pumps,
Finally, the liquids that lithium producers reinject into the salar are blending pipes and surface ponds intensify the hydro-geological and
classified as water, a designation that avoids regulatory requirements for hydro-ecological processes that have concentrated lithium in the salar
over more-than-human timescales. Industrial producers have taken hold
directly of natural processes with the goal of massively accelerating the
Table 1 concentration of lithium. From this perspective, lithium-from-brine
Rates of water extraction (brine and freshwater) in the salar (based on Jerez confirms a growing recognition among critical resource geographers
Henriquez (2018: 28) and Babidge et al. (2019). that the real subsumption of nature need not be limited to biologically-
Company Brine extraction (L/S) Fresh Water rights (L/S) based processes like cultivation (as originally argued by Boyd et al.
SQM 1700 240 2001), and it is also a feature of the extractive sector (Smith 2007,
Albemarle 442 24 Labban 2014, Delgado 2017, Boyd and Prudham 2017).
However, the analytical division between ‘formal’ and ‘real’ does not
handle well the eco-regulatory logic of optimisation. Under closer

12
The quote comes from a presentation made during our field visits to oper­
ations on the salar.

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B. Bustos-Gallardo et al. Geoforum 119 (2021) 177–189

examination, the flexibilities of brine express elements of both the For the most part, however, the state’s interest in capitalisation of the
‘formal’ and ‘real’ subsumption of nature (thereby illustrating the lim­ lithium value chain has tended in a different direction – away from the
itations of this binary division for analysing industrial dynamics in salt flats and towards ‘downstream’ forms of value-added in the battery
resource sectors). To the extent that the flexibilities of brine enhance sector. The Chilean state has chosen the current speculative moment to
productivity by extending the physical and ideological appropriation of push for a greater role in the global lithium economy although, to date, it
nature (rather than augmenting the production process by taking hold of has been frustrated in its efforts to do so.14 For example, state contracts
it directly), they illustrate key features of formal subsumption. For with lithium producers include a preferential price clause to promote
example, operators on the salar gain access to specific brine chemistry by downstream technological innovation and product development in
extending the horizontal or vertical depth of pumping – i.e. improving Chile. Universities have also sought to harness the speculative moment
productivity by increasing both the spatial scope and internal differen­ around lithium, partnering with private firms to fund research into
tiation of the ‘lithium reserve’ in the salar – rather than developing new downstream product development. For example, the University of Chile,
process chemistry. Similarly, the rate of lithium brine production is the University of Santiago, The Catholic University and the University of
controlled not by taking hold of the evaporation process directly (e.g. via Antofagasta are collaborating with Soquimich, Chemetall and Marubeni
heating or volatilisation) but by decreasing the depth of evaporating to create a Lithium Innovation Center focused on reducing the price of
ponds or increasing their spatial extent. In short, productivity is lithium-batteries, and increasing their storage capacity and life-span.
controlled largely by redistributing brines over time and space to take
advantage of contextual conditions. Consequently, the fixed capital and 5. Conclusion
infrastructure committed to the industrial process are geared towards
enabling this redistribution, rather than deepening direct control over This paper has explored the ecologically-embedded character of
hydrogeological and hydroecological processes. As a result, resource lithium production and its implications for resource management. We
management in lithium production has a spatially and temporally have highlighted how brine is a flexible resource whose processing can
extensive (rather than intensive) character: it focuses on the composi­ be adapted (temporally, spatially, volumetrically, chemically) to market
tion, flow and residency of brine in time and space. Nonetheless, the eco- conditions. And we have shown how producing lithium from brine
regulatory character of lithium production from brine means that sig­ creates a series of contradictions (exemplified by the case of water
nificant capital resources are directed towards optimising the hydro- depletion) that must be managed if they are not to disrupt accumula­
geological and hydro-ecological processes that concentrate lithium. tion. At the core of our account is the way in which lithium production
The ‘intentional structure’ of optimising natural processes – implying a from the Atacama is based on the pumping of subterranean brines and
form of managerial control based on conditioning inputs in order to the subsequent evaporation of their water content. We have explained
maximize a particular output – illustrates important elements of real how extracting lithium from brine depends on pumping saline ground­
subsumption. The blending of brines from the salar, for example, relies water to the surface and concentrating its dissolved lithium content via
on a detailed knowledge of geochemistry at a fine degree of spatial evaporation, a process that can be understood as a form of water mining.
resolution, and the capacity to actively select and control where and To the extent that it is provisioned with lithium from the Atacama, the
when different brines are mixed. It rests, therefore, on the capitalisation lithium-ion battery value chain (and the ‘clean energy’ it enables) rests
of some – but not all – of the ecological conditions of brine production: on the continued dewatering of salt flats in one of the world’s most arid
specifically, it rests on capitalising two key ‘ecological’ conditions (brine regions. In highlighting some of the contradictions associated with
differentiation, and the availability at a single point of multiple brines) producing lithium from brine in northern Chile, we have shown how the
while leaving other aspects of the process ‘to the sway of nature’. Chilean state facilitates production through a series of institutional and
The way in which ecological conditions of production are capitalised ontological manueveurs that separate water from brine.
has important environmental consequences. Lithium producers on the Beyond the specifics of our case, our paper opens up several
salar currently rely heavily on uncapitalised inputs, resulting in a analytical opportunities in the context of critical resource geography’s
spatially extensive model of extracting brines that is leading to a core conceptual concerns. First, lithium production from brine sits
regional water deficit. The technological trajectory among individual somewhat awkwardly across the categories of ‘agriculture’ and ‘mining’
producers is not towards further real subsumption involving, for by which resource geography in general, and the literature on industrial
example, the capitalisation of evaporation processes and the recycling of dynamics specifically, has organised the analysis of primary sector ac­
water inputs. As we have outlined, there are limited incentives for in­ tivities. Lithium-as-brine is like mining, as it involves the primary
dividual producers to depart from the current process and, furthermore, appropriation of a subterranean raw material (brine) via technology
some of the flexibilities afforded by current forms of investment create (pumping) and the instruments of property. Lithium-from-brine, how­
mixed incentives that actively work against further capitalisation. ever, replicates the eco-regulatory practices of agriculture, as capital is
There are, however, several initiatives involving the state, univer­ directed at manipulating the contextual conditions of brine formation (i.
sities and private firms in Chile exploring ways of making brine e. the three-dimensional hydrogeology of the brine-field) and the surface
extraction more efficient through greater capitalisation of inputs. For processes of brine concentration and chemical separation. Brine pro­
example, the University of Santiago created the Center of Lithium and vides, then, a way to think about the ecological specificities of both
Applied Mineral Research in 2019, acquiring a 5400-hectare concession agriculture and mining while, at the same time, continuing to prob­
in partnership with a private firm in the Salar de Llamara (Tarapaca lematise these categories (see Labban 2014; Boyd and Prudham 2017;
region) with the goal of producing more efficient brine extraction Delgado 2017).
technologies. Furthermore, CORFO has launched a bid to create the Second, brine extraction illustrates aspects of flexibility that are
Energy Transition Center and Advanced Materials for the Development largely occluded in (or absent from) cases of mining and agriculture. As
of Lithium (Corfo, 2019) which would fund up to USD$300 million of a consequence, by engaging with lithium/brine in the Atacama we have
innovation in solar energy, low emission mining, and lithium advanced been able to develop an account of flexibility that extends the work of
applied materials.13 More broadly, the University of Chile has created others (e.g. Knapp 2016, Borras et al. 2016, Gillon 2016) in two
the Transdisciplinary Network on Lithium, Salt Flats and Energy to important ways: to consider an expanded repertoire of flexibility that
propose governance mechanisms for the resources of the Atacama. includes the material and interpretative; and to situate flexibility in
relation to underlying contradictions and institutional/technological

13
The bid was sanctioned in January 2021 to an international consortium. For
14
details see CORFO (2021). For more on the failed bids see Minería Chilena (2019).

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