Lithium Triangle

The Lithium Triangle refers to a high-altitude zone in the Andes covering the Salar de Atacama in Chile, the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia, and the Salar del Hombre Muerto and other salars in northwestern Argentina. According to the U.S. Geological Survey's annual Mineral Commodity Summaries, these three countries together account for roughly half of global identified lithium resources, with Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile consistently ranked among the top holders. Lithium in the region is extracted primarily from brine beneath the salars through solar evaporation, a method that is cheaper but slower and more water-intensive than hard-rock mining used in Australia.

The three countries have taken sharply different policy approaches:

• Chile treats lithium as a strategic resource under a 1979 decree, with extraction historically limited to SQM and Albemarle operating under CORFO-issued quotas. In April 2023, President Gabriel Boric announced a National Lithium Strategy giving the state, through Codelco, a controlling role in future projects.
• Argentina operates under a federal mining code that delegates resource ownership to the provinces, producing a more open, investor-friendly regime. Provinces such as Jujuy, Salta, and Catamarca host most projects.
• Bolivia holds the largest resource estimates but the smallest production. YLB (Yacimientos de Litio Bolivianos), created in 2017, manages reserves under a state-led model; in 2023 Bolivia signed agreements with Chinese consortium CBC and Russia's Uranium One for direct lithium extraction pilots.

The region sits at the center of debates over resource nationalism, green industrial policy, Indigenous consultation rights under ILO Convention 169, and water use in one of the driest places on Earth. It is also a focal point of geopolitical competition among China, the United States, and the European Union for battery supply chains tied to the energy transition.