Lithium mining, water resources, and socio-economic issues in northern Argentina: We are not all in the same boat

Abstract

Lithium mining in Argentina is often associated to social injustices, unequal access to information, and conflicts around issues such as water consumption. Different stakeholders hold different perceptions around the pros and cons of lithium mining. We identify here concerns regarding water resources, technical aspects of lithium mining, and social and economic aspects in four different sources of information: (1) Scientific articles; (2) Government reports; (3) Corporate reports; and (4) Newspaper articles. We found differences between the groups of documents analyzed. Scientific and newspaper articles share a wide spectrum of issues. Corporate and government reports are more focused and relate more heavily to social and economic aspects. Socio-technical issues, frequent in government reports and the media, do not seem relevant in corporate reports. Concerns about water resources and lithium mining are most prominent in scientific and newspaper articles. Government reports were the least concerned about water and the socio-environmental impacts of lithium mining, but focused on global markets, employment and technical development. Analyzing stakeholders’ concerns in the Argentine Puna region can help reveal power structures, connections, and discourses across different sectors and scales.