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Mining in Bolivia Lithium rush in the Andes

As of: 06/20/2021 4:40 p.m.

The largest lithium deposits on earth are believed to be under the Uyuni salt lake in Bolivia. The planned dismantling of the metal, which is important for batteries, raises hopes, but is controversial because of the high water consumption.

By Anne Herrberg, ARD Studio Buenos Aires, and Matthias Ebert, ARD studio Rio de Janeiro

It lies dazzling white between the majestic peaks of the Bolivian Andes, an area nine times the size of Berlin: the Uyuni salt lake. Hidden underneath is a treasure: white gold, lithium, or as Panfilo Huayllas, Mayor of Rio Grande says: “our future”. He demands: “All communities around the salt lake and all Bolivians must benefit from the lithium that is under this salt crust.

Lithium, the lightest metal on earth, is required for lithium-ion batteries. They are not only found in cell phones and laptops, but also in electric cars. Without lithium there is no e-mobility – and nowhere in the world are more reserves believed than here, on the roof of the Andes.

Bolivia doesn’t just want to be a supplier of raw materials

But Bolivia wants to be more than just a supplier of raw materials. “We local residents have to share in the profits, because we will feel the effects of lithium industrialization here in Rio Grande,” says Mayor Huayllas.

Lithium is said to be a driver for Bolivia’s industrialization. The plan is to build the batteries yourself. Ex-President Evo Morales was once looking for partners for this project – and found them in a German medium-sized company: ACISA from Zimmer ob Rottweil on the edge of the Black Forest. It was a deal of the century. But it burst in 2019 , after the election overshadowed by allegations of fraud and Morales’ flight into exile. Since then, the German-Bolivian project has been on hold.

The lithium deal negotiated by ex-President Morales collapsed in 2019. Image: AFP

Not everyone is enthusiastic about it anyway. Luis Machaca is the spokesman for a citizens’ initiative that opposes the project. “The Germans wanted to mine our raw material behind our backs, with a contract for 70 years,” he says. “They may be a good partner, but they have neither the technical means nor the technology.”

Lithium mining uses up a lot of precious water

What does mining mean for people, but also for the sensitive ecosystem? It is about the most precious commodity on the roof of the Andes: water.

A look across the border into the Atacama Desert to Chile: SQM has been mining lithium there for 25 years. The brine is pumped up from 40 meters, then evaporates in basins over months until a lithium-containing slag remains. It is a very water-intensive process, of all places in one of the driest regions in the world, says the Chilean biologist Cristina Dorador. “We can see from satellite images over the past 20 years that the soil has lost moisture,” she says. At the same time, the ground is heating up and the vegetation is receding. “These changes are directly related to lithium production over the past 20 years.”

Water protection should be improved

The company promises to make mining more sustainable. In Chile’s new constitution, on which the biologist Dorador will also be co-writing, environmental and water protection should be a top priority. Local residents like Cristian Toroca remain skeptical. “The company had not previously intended to involve local residents, that bothers us about this group,” he says. “They’re pulling this mineral out of the ground to sell in Europe as a clean product, but that’s a lie.”

In Bolivia it is still unclear who will be awarded the contract: the Germans are competing with Chinese and US companies. Panfilo Huayllas continues to hope that the white gold will bring prosperity to his community. But he too says: not at any price. “Alternative ways of supplying lithium production with water in the future must be found. If they only tap our wells, we will ruin the future of our children.”

Benedetta Quagli: Federico Chiesa has won a place in the Italian team to attend Euro 2020 . Chiesa’s private life is rarely mentioned in the media. However, his relationship with his girlfriend Benedetta Quagli still cannot hide from fans. According to the Inews This girl is known for her role as a model. Image: Benedetta Quagli. Chiesa has been dating Quagli since he was with Fiorentina. The Italian winger is currently 23 years old, while Benedetta is 27 years old. Besides modeling, this girl also helps her family in the fashion business. Photo: Benedetta Quagli. Chloe Wealleans-Watts is a member of girl band 303. She has been dating Chelsea’s Mason Mount for the past 4 years. Because she wanted to try different fields, she decided to sign with Storm modeling agency. According to the company representative, Chloe left a first impression with black hair and brown eyes. Image: Chloe Wealleans-Watts. When there is no photo session, the female model from the UK prefers to wear clothes that show her personality and youthfulness at the age of 21. In addition to neutral clothes, Chloe also makes herself stand out more with brighter tones. like pink, blue or yellow. Photo: Chloe Welleans-Watts. Zulay Pogba: Paul Pogba is one of the pillars of the French team at Euro 2020 . He is said to be married to a model born in 1996, from Bolivia. According to the Goal Initially, she studied Business Administration at the University of Bolivia but dropped out to emigrate to California (USA) as a real estate agent. She then quit her job to pursue a modeling career. Image: Zulay Pogba. Zulay Pogba’s style is not fixed. She constantly changes from the image of personality, luxurious lady to gentle, feminine. Branded bags are always an accessory that helps her create accents for her look. Photo: Zulay Pogba. Ashleigh Behan: Besides the model lineup, the player’s back Euro 2020 There is also a make-up artist. Ashleigh (26 years old) met Kalvin Phillips at school and they have been dating since 2010. Photo: Kalvin Phillips. Ashleigh often focuses on expressing her sexy features through tight dresses or cut-outs. Photo: Kalvin Phillips.

3 light streaks in the sky were recorded by people The British Daily Star newspaper quoted information from the Bolivian media about the incident that happened in the city of Santa Cruz with the central part of this country: “after three light streaks appeared in the sky, aliens were seen. leaving the UFO and walking on the street spooked children and young people”. Traces of UFOs left on the lawn According to the article, this alien is about 30 cm tall, has a round head and very large eyes. The hand has only three fingers, looks like the chupacabra (goat blood-sucking demon) in American legend. Someone previously said that they had seen chupacabra appear in Puerto Rico in 1995. The legendary chupacabra goat sucker The article mentioned that: after this alien creature completed a round and returned to the UFO, it flew to an unknown place, leaving only a circular track on the grass. The local television station reported on the incident as well as interviewed witnesses present. Someone has tried to draw the appearance of aliens and can see the creatures have round heads with large eyes. From people’s sketches, the aliens look like this UFO researcher Javier Aliaga told local media: “When this flying object appeared in the sky, there was an explosion resembling thunder. Also, the object appeared to be breathing fire.” . Santa Cruz seems to be a hot spot for aliens to visit. This is not the first time something like this has happened in the area. In 2016, people in Santa Cruz said they witnessed a mysterious creature come down from a UFO, then walked around and climbed a tree. But when the people here ran out because they heard a very loud sound and saw a flash of light, the alien immediately returned to the UFO and disappeared. Sightings of unidentified flying objects have been reported from many parts of the world. Even the US Department of Defense has confirmed that the US Navy also has a video recording the appearance of UFOs. The video below captures three triangular objects believed to be UFOs, hovering above the US Navy destroyer USS Russell in July 2019 off the coast of San Diego. According to reports, the object hovered about 213 meters from the stern of the Russell. The sailors claimed that they harassed at least three US warships, continuously stalked and engaged in “brazen actions” for 90 minutes while the ships exercised at sea. Susan Gough, a spokeswoman for the US Department of Defense, said: “I can confirm that the UFO images and videos taken by the US Navy are genuine.” Former President Donald Trump, before leaving the White House, also asked the director of national intelligence to report details about “Unidentified Aerial Phenomena” or “Anomalous Flying Vehicles” and expected announced this June. These documents, once published, will spark a global debate about the existence of “Unidentified Flying Objects” (UFOs). Speaking to Fox News, Mr. John Ratcliffe – Mr. Trump’s former director of national intelligence – alluded to the report that, “there is a lot more that is seen about UFOs than what has been made public”. “When we talk about sightings, we are talking about objects that have been seen by naval or air force pilots, or that have been collected by satellite imagery,” he revealed. ”. The former director of national intelligence described them as actions that are difficult to explain, movements that are difficult to reproduce because humans do not have enough technology or moves at supersonic speeds without causing an explosion. supersonic. Mr. Ratcliffe also shared that UFOs and other phenomena have been seen “all over the world” and sensors are picking up these unexplained but not yet publicly available phenomena.

With a length of 69 km, the North Yungas road connecting La Paz to Coroico in Bolivia is also known as the Grove road. However, many people know this place with the world-famous “death road” nickname. North Yungas “death road” was built in the 1930s. Whenever moving through this road, drivers always have to “stress their brains”, be very careful because the road is quite zigzag, with many dangerous turns. On one side of North Yungas Road is a cliff, a gentle hillside. The other side is a deep, barrierless abyss. In addition, the weather here often has heavy rain, which can cause landslides, slippery road surface, dense fog that obstructs visibility… These things put vehicles traveling through the North Yungas road at risk of accidents. According to one statistic, every year about 200-300 people die on the “road of death” North Yungas. Therefore, to ensure safety, drivers are recommended to move at a moderate speed to be able to handle unexpected situations. Although the North Yungas road is extremely dangerous, some adventurous cyclists come here for an exciting experience. To limit and prevent accidents on North Yungas Road, Bolivian authorities built a new route from La Paz to Coroico. Thanks to the new road, the number of accidents on North Yungas Road has decreased significantly. Invite readers to watch the video: Fall in love with the red maple leaf road in Hanoi. Source: THDT1.

Here are some strange traditions that are unusual in many parts of the world: Easter Campfire, Germany The night before Easter, people in some areas of Germany make a huge bonfire and burn it brightly. This custom has been around for a long time, marking the time when people welcome spring and drive away the evil spirits of winter. In some regions like Nordrhein-Westfalen, a state in western Germany, people burn a large wooden wheel and then roll downhill to pray for a good harvest. Eat noodle soup in Japan While in most countries it is generally considered disrespectful to make noise while eating, in Japan there is an exception. That’s when people eat noodles. If you don’t slurp noodles while you eat or make slurping noises, you may be seen as impolite. Put money on food in Bolivia In Bolivia, locals have a tradition of marking the end of the year and welcoming the new year by making coin pies. It is said that whoever wins the coin will have good luck in the coming year. Throwing teeth in Greece In Greece, children don’t have ‘tooth fairies’, but instead, when a baby tooth falls out, people throw it on the roof. The act of throwing teeth on the roof gives hope that adult teeth will always be strong and healthy. Toss tomatoes in Spain Throwing tomatoes at the opposite person, sounds like an impolite act, but in Spain, locals hold a special festival called La Tomatina. This is a place where people can freely throw tomatoes at each other without being scolded. The fun festival started in 1945. Up to now, people hold the festival every year on the last Wednesday of August. Eating ice cream in winter in Mongolia While most people tend to eat ice cream on hot summer days, in Mongolia, people like it on the coldest days of winter. On the streets of Mongolia, there are still people selling ice cream in paper boxes without a separate refrigerator because the outdoor temperature sometimes falls to about minus 5 degrees Celsius. Choosing a future career in Korea In Korea, on the first birthday of a baby, the family prepares tools typical of many different professions such as books, money, paint brushes… Depending on what the baby chooses, The family can know what the child will do in the future, what characteristics will be. For example, if a child chooses money, he will likely be rich in the future, if he chooses books, he will be a very intelligent person. Jumping from a chair to the ground in Denmark Most countries have a specific traditional custom that people perform on New Year’s Eve, before entering the new year. In Denmark, too, but this custom is somewhat more interesting and exotic. Just before the clock strikes the transition between the old year and the new year, everyone will sit on a chair and perform the act of jumping to the floor at the exact moment of greeting the new year. Those who do not dance or forget this act will not be lucky in the new year.

Cleio Junior, a firefighter at the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Natural Resources, discovered a dead anteater while he was on a fire control mission near the Amazonas state. Photo: Reuters. The above data is based on the research results of MAAP when conducting the analysis of very high resolution satellite images and data, recorded in the territories of all countries in the Amazon Delta, including Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Guyana and Surinam. Accordingly, the Amazon’s primary forest area lost in the past year alone is equivalent to that of the Central American nation of El Salvador. The countries with the most loss of Amazon primary forests in 2020 are Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador, respectively. Still according to the MAAP, more than 65% of deforestation of the entire Amazon region in 2020 was recorded in Brazil. South America’s largest country by acreage has lost a total of 1.5 million hectares of forest in the past year, up more than 13% from the year before. The area of ​​deforestation in Brazil is nearly twice the size of Puerto Rico and is mainly concentrated in the south of the country. Meanwhile, the deforestation area in Bolivia in 2020 amounted to a record 240,000 hectares, mainly due to the fires occurring in the Southeast of the country that destroyed the forests in the ecosystems. Chiquitano and Chaco slices. In the case of Peru, the country lost 190,000 hectares of primary forest last year, up 18% from 2019 and also a record number. The main cause of deforestation in Peru is attributed to the burning of forests for arable land. Since mid-2019, data from the early warning satellite system showed that the deforestation rate in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil tended to increase, to the fastest in a decade. According to the Brazilian Institute of Aerospace Research (INPE), the alarm system recorded forest deforestation in May up to 739 km2. This is higher than the 550 square kilometers recorded in May 2018, and twice as high as the area of ​​forest that was destroyed two years ago. According to the head of INPE, Claudio Almeida, 2019 is a “bad year” for the Amazon. As the country with the most area of ​​Amazon, but Brazil is also the country with the most forest loss in 2018 with nearly 16,187 km2. The main reason is due to deforestation for livestock, soybean cultivation and mining. According to the data of Mapbiomas – a research project on the disappearance of protective forest areas in the Amazon forest, in the last 30 years there has been 953,000 hectares of lost forest including protected areas, lands indigenous and inland lands. It is recognized that this figure is equivalent to 6 times the size of the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest city and South America. The results of Mapbiomas add that, excluding protection forests, the Amazon forest area destroyed in the past 30 years has reached 39.8 million hectares, equivalent to 19% of the total natural forest area ever existed. in 1985. Satellite imagery also shows that 84% of the lost area of ​​the world’s largest rainforest has become agricultural land, including pastures and pastures. farmyard. In early December 2020, the European Union (EU) envoy to Brazil, Ambassador Ignacio Ybanez said, until Brazil has not committed to preventing deforestation of the Amazon, the Free Trade Agreement between the EU and the South American Common Market (Mercosur) will not be approved by the parliament of the EU member states to come into force. This happens when the world is concerned about the “green lung of the Earth” that is Amazon being burned more and more. The EU Embassy in Brazil mentioned the deforestation of the Amazon and participation in the Paris Agreement on climate change. In fact, the Amazon wildfire is already at an alarming rate. It not only affects a few countries but is also global because it is the largest forest in the world with immeasurable value.

Zoji La, India: The 9km long mountain road connecting Ladakh and Kashmir, where one can cross and breed at the same time.

This is a picture of Transfăgărășan in Romania, known at a height of 2,034 meters, where one can admire the majestic scenery and is also the most dangerous road in this country.

Dalton Highway in Alaska: This is a 666km snow-covered highway connecting three small Alaskan villages.

Khardung La, India is considered the highest altitude road in the world – 5,602 meters

Yungas Road in Bolivia: Each year 200-300 people die on the one side of the steep mountain, the other side is 600m deep.

Atlantic Road connects small coastal villages. Although dangerous, visitors often come here to admire the scenery

Guoliang tunnel, China

Le Passage du Gois, France is only open for a few hours a day because at high tide, the entire road will “drown” in the water.

When passing through Tianmen Mountain Road, China, tourists need to have a “spirit of steel” to cross 10km with 99 steep turns.

Hana, Hawaii is a narrow, winding 112km road connecting 59 bridges, of which 46 bridges have only one lane.

The murky Kolima Road in Russia is often called the “Dead Road”. The first 90km of the road was built by prisoners in 1932 and the rest was completed in 1953.

Col de la Bonette, France – Terrain road 2,000 meters high with unbelievably steep curves

Gotthard Road, Switzerland.

The Caucasus Road in Russia

Eshima Osashi Bridge in Japan: At first glance you won’t think that cars can climb this bridge. Altitude has been calculated to allow vehicle traffic while also allowing large ships to operate under the bridge.