Scouring the globe, Australian corporations and investors are expanding into new territories, both domestically and internationally, for new sources of “critical and strategic” minerals for the “green energy transition” to a zero carbon world. These minerals include lithium, copper, nickel, rare earth, and cobalt.
Located in Tarapacá region and crossed by the Bolivian border, Coipasa Salt Flat is under dispute since exploration works carried by the Canadian Lithium Chile were rejected by local Aymara communities because of the potential damage on wetlands that sustain both wildlife and cattle (alpacas).
Neither proper environmental assessment nor Indigenous/Public consultation has ever been carried out for lithium extraction, and precautionary principle has not been respected.
Australian groups have joined a global network of communities directly impacted by lithium mining, who are warning against drastically expanding mining in the name of ‘Green Energy’.