- Large-scale lithium mining may impact scarce and precious water resources and balance in Argentina’s arid ecosystems, says Clemente Flores, president of the El Angosto Indigenous community.
- Flores says Indigenous communities manage water communally and this regulates how much they can grow, how many animals they can have, and it shapes their way of life and customs.
- Companies are mining “to save the world from the impacts of climate change by using the minerals for renewable technologies,” he says in this opinion piece. “But we want to be included among those who will be saved — not sacrificed to save others.”
- This commentary is part of the Voices from the Land series, a compilation of Indigenous-led opinion pieces. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.
This series, Voices from the Land, brings together opinion pieces led and written by Indigenous peoples from around the world. Through these commentaries, we share our lived realities and reflections on urgent issues shaping our time — environmental destruction, our relationship with nature, and systemic injustice. We write from the heart of our communities, where the impacts of these urgent crises are deeply felt, but also where solutions are rooted. Through this series, we speak from our territories, and ensure our truths are part of the global conversation.
My name is Clemente Flores and I am the president of the El Angosto Indigenous community. We began 2010 with a major concern: the presence of lithium mining companies in the province of Salta, in the community of Cangrejillos. We live alongside other communities in the Salinas Grandes and Laguna de Guayatayoc Basin, which spans two provinces in northern Argentina, Salta and Jujuy.
We are more than 30 communities that have lived around the salt flats for thousands of years, according to anthropological studies. We are very concerned about the arrival of mining companies seeking to extract brine water for lithium (a critical mineral) because we fear what might happen to our way of life if we run out of this essential resource: water.
The Salinas Grandes and Laguna de Guayatayoc Basin is located in the Altiplano, also known as the Puna Plateau, an extremely arid ecosystem.
In this desert climate, at about 4,000 meters (13,100 feet) above sea level, it practically never rains year-round (less than 0.2 centimeters or 0.1 inches/year). That is why water is a very scarce and precious commodity, which we manage communally and which regulates how much we can grow, how many animals we can have as well as shaping our way of life and our customs. The salt flats are located in a depression that prevents groundwater and brine from escaping, forming an endorheic reservoir that gives rise to the salt flats where our animals and we live.
That is why we were very concerned when we learned that mining companies were operating in the basin.
In recent decades, we have already noticed that water is running out, and this trend will continue. So, if companies take away water, what are we going to live on? Attacks on our ancestral culture are direct attacks on human rights, and these companies are doing this to save the world from the impacts of climate change by using the minerals for renewable technologies. But we want to be included among those who will be saved — not sacrificed to save others.
Speaking on behalf of Indigenous peoples in our communities, we want the comprehensive development of our communities. We have activities such as livestock farming, agriculture, crafts and tourism, and we want to strengthen them. We believe that we cannot coexist with large-scale mining or compete with the cultural impact of dealing with multinational mining companies. Therefore, our desire is to defend our territory and continue to grow in harmony with our culture and resources.
A process to prevent large-scale lithium mining
We began meeting with nearby communities and our salt cooperative to assess how we could defend our territory. When we met to discuss this situation and exchanged information among ourselves and with the cooperative, we realized that the companies were proposing to buy the cooperative’s mining claims.
They had already offered money to the cooperatives to take over their mines, which, in our case, are used to extract salt for human and animal consumption, an essential resource for our communities. But the cooperative members had already said no, because extracting lithium or getting rich is not the cooperative’s goal. The cooperative’s priority is to care for the territory and maintain our supply.
The decision was clear: We wanted to file a lawsuit on behalf of the communities in the provinces of Salta and Jujuy before the nation’s Supreme Court of Justice. We, the communities that live there, say that we are the ones who inhabit this land, but mining law maintains that we only make use of the territory, and that legal concept is still under discussion.
This is the very serious problem we face: land tenure. Why? Because the communities have legal recognition of their possession, but we do not have property titles.
Unfortunately, in Las Salinas, we did not want to issue the titles, as mandated by the state, leaving spaces between communities open for companies to enter. We want the titles, above all, for the entire territory.
When we began studying these issues with the communities, we realized that all this documentation was mixed up. The state confuses the many communities, as it is not clear who in which community authorized which company or for what purpose. We leaders try to understand, but it is very tiring because we do not have a specialized technical team nor the resources to pay for one on our own that would guarantee impartiality. The information is scattered across different government offices, and we also need to raise awareness in our communities.
Here, access to information guaranteed by the Escazú Agreement, to which Argentina is a signatory, is not being fulfilled.
At the same time, one of these companies, Pan American Energy, entered a community called Lipán. They held a meeting with that community and convinced them by promising jobs. But when we found out, we realized this request not only affects the Lipán community but also 80% of my community, El Angosto.
Another thing that struck us when reviewing the environmental impact studies was that they did not mention the existence of our communities. This confused us even more, because how can we not be reflected in the environmental impacts if we are part of that territory? Unfortunately, what they say on paper does not always correspond to reality.
Or, when more companies enter our territory, as Tecpetrol did in Rinconadillas and Tres Pozos, promising jobs in meetings with the community — which they consider consultation — conflicts in the community arise while the companies take the water. This harms and breaks down community relations. These processes attempt to divide us socially, when our ancestral way of life has always been in community, without seeking individual profit, but rather collective subsistence.
Proper consultation and appreciation of culture
Argentina adheres to International Labour Organization Convention 169 and the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. For this reason, we decided to continue our work by requesting a visit from former U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples James Anaya, who visited our territory in 2011 and made recommendations to the Argentinian state that have not yet been fulfilled.
We then began community development work on our consultation protocol. This document, which we call Kachi Yupi — Huellas de la Sal (Kachi Yupi — Traces of Salt), is a procedure for free, prior and informed consultation and consent, designed by the Kolla and Atacama Indigenous communities of the Salinas Grandes Basin and Laguna de Guayatayoc.
It is important because we establish a framework that protects our communities’ rights to be consulted and to participate in decisions that affect our territories and resources, guaranteeing respect for their worldview, culture and identity in accordance with the international laws and treaties to which Argentina adheres.
That is why we decided to participate in the documentary In the Name of Lithium, to document the situation we are experiencing. We also created the podcast Habla Pacha with the aim of awakening emotions that can only generate good deeds and inspire noble actions and an unprecedented appreciation for the history of the Indigenous peoples of Salinas Grandes and the defense of their lands.
Banner image: Communities in the Salinas Grandes and Laguna de Guayatayoc Basin have activities such as livestock farming, agriculture, crafts and tourism. Image courtesy of Clemente Flores.
Clemente Flores is an Indigenous leader and president of the El Angosto Indigenous community in Argentina.
The series is produced by the collective Passu Creativa, with the support of Earth Alliance, and published by Mongabay.
Indigenous women and the path to a just energy transition: Voices from the land (commentary)
Citation:
Díaz Paz, W. F., Seghezzo, L., Salas Barboza, A. G., Escosteguy, M., Arias-Alvarado, P. V., Kruse, E., … Iribarnegaray, M. A. (2025). The water footprint of lithium extraction technologies: Insights from environmental impact reports in Argentina’s salt flats. Heliyon, 11(4), e42523. doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2025.e42523
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