Lithium mining - Catherine Hyland

 Catherine Hyland’s series of images from the SQM lithium mine in the Atacama desert in northern Chile.

Incredible amphoteric photos of the ‘driest place on earth’. lithium floats in a brine beneath the surface and is gradually separated using evaporation on the salt flats. This is what gives them the vivid yellows and blues. It takes 500,000 gallons of water to produce 1 ton of lithium. There are around 3 grams in a smart phone and 70kg in a car battery. 

‘There is enough lithium in the Atacama to make batteries for 400 million electric cars, but taking the long view, that’s not very many. We will consume, the cars will come and go, the lithium will run out, the mines will close, the land will remain. The land, whatever its state, will always remain.’(1)

1. https://catherinehyland.co.uk/work/lithium-mining