The Salar de Uyuni is located at a height of about 3,700 metres above sea level in the southwest of Bolivia, covering 10,582 square kilometres of brilliant white salt crust. Below this area lies the most important geological structure of the 21st century, the unique deposit of lithium in the world. After travelling for a few hours to the west to reach Chile’s Atacama Desert, one will discover another salar, Salar de Atacama, one of the richest areas concerning lithium resources in the world. When entering Argentina’s high river basin, the visitor will encounter a lot of salars like Hombre Muerto, Olaroz, Cauchari, and Rincon.

Chile, Bolivia, and Argentina form what geologists and economists call the Lithium Triangle, a lucrative area of the world that, according to the latest Mineral Commodity Summaries published by the US Geological Survey, is home to more than 56 percent of the lithium resources available worldwide. With the world rapidly turning to electric vehicles and renewable energy, that concentration of resources in one part of South America has made the triangle one of the most strategically important geographic areas in the world.

The issue at hand is no longer whether the world needs what is buried within the saline desert. Rather, it is whether Chile, Bolivia, and Argentina have the necessary political integrity, institutional strength, and negotiating power to reach an agreement so that their people take advantage of the extraction of the resource as opposed to foreign firms and governments. 

What the Lithium Triangle Actually Is

Lithium is not contained in veins in the same way as occurs with gold or copper; rather, it resides in underground brine that has been trapped beneath salt flats for eons. As part of this process, the brine is pumped up to the surface and allowed to sit in evaporation ponds, where the evaporation process occurs over months in the heat of the sun and dries up the solutions to produce material that can be processed to extract lithium carbonate or lithium hydroxide.

The lithium reserve numbers are breathtaking. Up until now, it is estimated that Chile possesses about 9.2 million metric tons of proved lithium reserves, practically a quarter of the world’s total reserves, mainly in the Salar de Atacama region. It is claimed that Bolivia has about 21 million tons of proven lithium reserves according to USGS databases, or around 20 percent of the total reserves of lithium in the world, almost entirely located in the Salar de Uyuni area. Finally, the estimation of lithium reserves in Argentina is 22 million tons of proven resources and 4.4 million tons of poured lithium. All mentioned countries hold more than half of all world recoverable lithium resources.

The concentration of resources in this particular area presents a great opportunity but also a structural vulnerability. With any minor political event, drought, or strike between the state and a mining company, the global lithium supply might decline quickly, which will affect electric car production in Germany, South Korea, and the United States. This triangle is not just a mining region; it is a bottleneck.

Three Countries, Three Very Different Stories

Chile is the recognized producer. It has been producing lithium from the Atacama for decades, and in 2025 remained the second-highest producer globally after Australia.........

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