LITHIUM IN ARGENTINA, THE RACE FOR WHITE GOLD

Beneath its vast, untamed expanses, Argentine holds a strategic treasure: 25% of the world’s reserves of lithium, a vital resource for the energy revolution. Everybody wants a piece of the new white-gold Eldorado, especially Europe, which desperately wants to be the world’s environmental- transition champion. But the competition is fierce: China, which had already staked its claim, has secured key agreements, while the election of President Milei — who is close to both Elon Musk and Donald Trump — may reshuffle the deck and re-open the door to the United States.

In this game of influence, the EU is staking everything on its free-trade agreement with Mercosur, even if that means fueling historic anger in European farmers. Behind the commercial negotiations, the lines for a global battle are being drawn: the New Energy Cold War. But it is in the salt pans of the Altiplano that the true cost of the race is revealed. Lithium extraction consumes/uses millions of liters of water in one of the most arid regions of the world, drying up aquifers and threatening the continued existence of ancient indigenous communities. Paradoxically, the very resource that is meant to save the climate may cause an irreversible environmental disaster.