Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development ISSN: 0013-9157 (Print) 1939-9154 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/venv20 Sustainable Governance of Strategic Minerals: Post-Neoliberalism and Lithium in Bolivia Daniela Sanchez-Lopez To cite this article: Daniela Sanchez-Lopez (2019) Sustainable Governance of Strategic Minerals: Post-Neoliberalism and Lithium in Bolivia, Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development, 61:6, 18-30 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/00139157.2019.1662659 Published online: 16 Oct 2019. Submit your article to this journal View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=venv20 Sustainable Governance of STRATEGIC MINERALS: Post-Neoliberalism and Lithium in Bolivia by Daniela Sanchez-Lopez ITHIUM IS A KEY matter, oil deposits, brines and rock tive in the Uyuni salt flat for extracting component of the im- minerals. However, it is only profitable and industrializing lithium carbonate, pending new generation when sourced from hard rocks (pegma- lithium hydroxide, and associated sub- 4 of batteries and a core tite deposits) and from the evaporation products (potassium chloride). element in any debate of brines. The most common method In 2008, Bolivian President Evo Labout renewable energy. Its governance for extraction in the salt flats is based Morales declared lithium as “a strate- and mining stories have a bearing on on solar evaporation in brine pools. The gic resource and a national priority” the success of sustainable development so-called “lithium triangle” in the South in announcing an ambitious Bolivian goals and the advance of climate change American salt flats of northern Chile, state-owned project of extraction and adaptation policies for the transport southern Bolivia, and northwestern industrialization of evaporite resources. and energy sectors. In terms of electric Argentina holds more than half of the The lithium project was presented as a cars, lithium-ion batteries are powering world reserves.2 Reserve estimates sug- successful example of post-neoliberal- electric and hybrid vehicles, along with gest that Bolivia possesses around 10.2 ism (understood as an economic and billions of portable electronics devices million tonnes of lithium (equivalent to political model with a strong state- worldwide. In terms of the energy mar- 38% of global resources).3 based involvement in key sectors of the ket, large-scale lithium battery energy Despite possessing the largest world economy). However, 10 years later, lith- storage systems are already operating in deposit, the country has not yet ex- ium has become the center of huge con- different locations. Soon they should be tracted lithium on an industrial scale. troversy due to delays in the different connected to the grid, potentially dra- Contrary to Chile and Argentina, which project phases, the technology selected, matically changing the residential and have been extracting and exporting lith- the environmental impacts, and the so- commercial energy markets.1 ium from brines for more than 20 years cial dynamics that emerged around this Lithium is found in a wide range of through private companies, Bolivia has resource at community, regional, and natural sources: seawater, geothermic opted for a 100% state-controlled initia- national levels. 18 ENVIRONMENT WWW.TANDFONLINE.COM/VENV VOLUME 61 NUMBER 6 Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia. iStock/eccolo74 iStock/capraibex Artisanal salt production, Colchani, Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia. Lithium, unlike traditional hard opposed to traditional mining, and economic elements shaping the gover- rock mining, involves a peculiar pro- is currently being developed within nance of lithium in Bolivia. It does so by cess of extraction; it is removed from a post-neoliberal framework set by a analyzing the different phases of the lith- brine in salt flats through chemical domineering leftist government. ium state project, the role indigenous and highly advanced technological Based on primary qualitative infor- communities in the surrounding areas of processes. The lithium project in Bo- mation collected during several months the Uyuni salt flat have had in this pro- livia represents a new type of mining of fieldwork research in Bolivia, this ar- cess, and the key features that make lith- with few prospects of employment as ticle exposes the social, political, and ium a distinctive extractive resource. NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2019 WWW.TANDFONLINE.COM/VENV ENVIRONMENT 19 The Politics of Extractive colonial times. As Molina states, in Bo- and political domains. As an economic Resources livia, natural resources are central to un- project, there has been a redefinition of derstanding three elements: the differ- the state’s role in the management of the Bolivia has been, and still is, a min- ent historical periods of the country; the economy, especially in the hydrocar- ing country with a long and contentious changing roles of the state in regulating bons sector. This has particularly been history of social struggles, high levels of and appropriating access to strategic the case since the government success- poverty and social exclusion, and large- natural resources according to the elite’s fully renegotiated the contract terms scale environmental degradation. Over interests; and the social struggles that with the key foreign oil and gas com- time, it has experienced patterns of boom sought to change property regimes and panies in order to capture more rev- and bust in terms of mineral develop- distribution of benefits for the people.8 enues for financing social policies.11 As ment: silver, tin, oil, gas, and presently, Over the last decade, Bolivia has a political project, Bolivia and Ecuador the potential development of lithium.5 undergone a political process mired in officially incorporated the indigenous Extractive resources play a signifi- conflict that started with the emblem- philosophy of Suma Qamaña (vivir bien cant role in the way the contemporary atic water war in 2000,9 and continued or living well) as the framework that structure of Bolivian society (and Latin into the gas conflicts in 2003 and 2005 promotes harmonious respect for na- America in general) has been formed.6 and the democratic election of the first ture within development.12 This in turn In economic terms, the country depends indigenous president (Evo Morales) recognizes indigenous rights and terri- on the export of raw materials—gas and and his left-wing political party (Mov- tories as part of political constitutions.13 minerals—representing 60% of total ex- imiento al Socialismo [MAS]) in 2005.10 Second, the decentralization process, ports in 2018.7 In social and political Under Morales, Bolivia has undergone which started in the 1990s, was devel- terms, the way resources are perceived sociopolitical transformation. First, the oped into a framework based on re- and incorporated into discourse is cen- implementation of a so-called “post- gional autonomy in 2009.14 The transfer tral to understanding the ideologies be- neoliberal model” sets a different deci- of political and economic power from hind them and the social struggles since sion-making framework for economic the central government to autonomous iStock/jezdicek A street in Potosí, Bolivia, near the world’s largest salt-flat containing lithium. 20 ENVIRONMENT WWW.TANDFONLINE.COM/VENV VOLUME 61 NUMBER 6 regions and indigenous territories was and halted the government’s plan to that lithium could be an opportunity intended to reinforce democracy and build a highway through their land in “to do things differently.” The govern- citizen participation. However, this 2011. ment’s discourse quickly highlighted has proven to be a slow and complex lithium as “critical to growth, develop- 15 24 process. In particular, this type of re- The Reinvention of Mining in ment and sovereignty” for the country. structured autonomy created conflicts Post-Neoliberalism These media and discursive elements among the interests of central, local, and contributed to making lithium a strate- indigenous governments regarding nat- Since the early 1990s, mining in Bo- gic resource and in people’s imagination ural resource management.16 livia has undergone a reinvention due to the next big resource of the country— The tensions among indigenous or- the arrival of transnational companies, indeed, “the jewel of the salt flat.” ganizations that previously supported the expansion of the cooperative mining The industrialization of lithium was Evo Morales reveal the inconsistencies sector, and now the state retaking an ac- incorporated as a state policy under the in the government’s “environmentalist tive role in mining but in a less emphatic control of COMIBOL and GNRE (Ger- indigenous” discourse as it clashes with way compared to the hydrocarbons sec- encia National de Recursos Evaporiticos the realpolitiks of extractive develop- tor. For instance, state-based mining and nowadays called YLB, for Yacimien- ment. Under the Morales government, managed by the Corporación Minera tos del Litio Boliviano). A peasant grass- some 55% of Bolivia’s territory is as- de Bolivia (state mining corporation, roots organization called FRUTCAS signed as hydrocarbon concessions.17 COMIBOL) represents only 8% of total was central to the extraction and indus- Many of the current conflicts in Bo- production. trialization of lithium as a state initia- livia can be classified into