Its pancake-flat surface, an ancient lake bed, is covered by a mosaic of pentagons and hexagons – formed by evaporation after the rainy season – and dotted with rocky islands populated by giant cacti and rabbit-like vizcachas. At an altitude of 3,663m, the Salar leaves you literally and figuratively breathless.
On its fringes lie remote villages that depend on salt harvesting, llama herding and quinoa farming, as well as small-scale tourism, which took off in the 1980s. To the south is the Reserva Nacional de Fauna Andina Eduardo Avaroa, home to red and green mineral-stained lakes, surreal rock formations, and colonies of flamingos.
I’ve been travelling to this region since 2004, drawn back repeatedly by the otherworldly scenery. But though it can feel timeless, change is coming. The Salar is part of the “Lithium Triangle”, an area estimated to contain around half of the world’s reserves of a metal that powers the digital age.
Nicknamed “white gold”, lithium is a key component of the lightweight, rechargeable batteries used in mobile phones, laptops and electric vehicles and to store renewable energy. As a result, it is vital for the global transition to a low-carbon economy.
On a recent visit, I got an insight into the challenges and opportunities lithium provides for the Salar. During a three-day tour, we stopped at a neat grid of pools the size and shape of tennis courts. They were half-filled with a pale turquoise liquid pumped up from the mineral-rich brine beneath the salt crust. “Look at the lithium,’ said my guide, Álvaro. “It is so light that it floats.”
The pools are part of Bolivia’s fledgling lithium industry – a charged political issue in a country whose natural resources, silver, rubber, tin, have long been exploited. While the Salar’s lithium reserves are worth billions of dollars, many fear extracting them will result in water shortages, pollution, soil contamination and infrastructure development, threatening the region’s fragile ecosystems and communities.
Álvaro and I headed on across the salt flat. The sun beamed like a spotlight and the scene was dazzlingly white. Nearby, a group of saleros – salt gatherers, wearing wide-brimmed hats and balaclavas to shield them from the glare – wielded pickaxes and piled up salt in pyramids. Traders once used llama caravans to transport their harvested salt across the Salar, Álvaro said. In the future, perhaps it’ll be electric cars.
With the price of lithium surging, Bolivia’s valuable reserves are unlikely to stay below the surface. Yet developing them while protecting the Salar’s mind-bending landscapes and the livelihoods and traditions of local people could prove an insurmountable task. The message for travellers is clear: visit as soon as you can. inews - link - Shafik Meghji - link - more like this - link
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