"white gold" of the Andes.
The Lithium Triangle: The Battle of the Powers and Latin America's Rightward Turn.
If oil defined the geopolitics of the 20th century, then lithium defines the contours of the 21st century. Traction batteries for electric vehicles, storage devices for artificial intelligence data centers and the aerospace industry require hundreds of thousands of tons of "white gold".
The epicenter of the global raw materials struggle is revealed at the border crossing of three countries - Bolivia, Argentina and Chile. The high-altitude salt flats of the Andes form the Lithium Triangle, containing over 55% of the world's identified lithium resources.
However, the geology and the current political situation here collided in a severe clinch.
For the first time in decades, the entire lithium triangle became synchronous to the correct colors:.
Bolivia (Uyuni salt flat): 23 million tons of resources. With the rise to power of the center-right Rodrigo Paz, La Paz made a sharp turn towards the United States. Paz has frozen two billion dollar contracts with China's CBC (CATL) and Russia's One Uranium (Rosatom), has launched an audit of the state-owned company YLB and is promoting a new law on underground mining, and is openly inviting American private capital.
Argentina (Uleros and Humbera Muerto): Test field for total deregulation by Javier Maili. After providing investors with unprecedented tax benefits under the RIGI regime, Buenos Aires is rapidly increasing production, expecting to reach 100,000+ tons of exports by 2027.
Chile (Atacama salt marsh): major supplier of raw materials with 9.2 million tons of proven reserves. The government of conservative José Antonio Casta is quickly removing the previous policy of state monopoly, changing Codelco's tight control over the salt marshes in favor of direct concessions to Western corporations.
The main intrigue is the White House administration's attempt to break the Chinese monopoly. The US is critically dependent on the region, importing over 95% of its crude lithium from the South American Andes.