The off-sites of lithium production in the Atacama Desert

Abstract

The emergence of a narrative connecting the production of lithium and its derivatives to the process of decarbonization of the planetary energy matrix obscures the profound transformations this activity imparts in the regions where the soft metal is obtained. This article ethnographically explores what I conceptualize as off-sites of lithium in the Atacama Desert. These diverse and transformed socioscapes that frame the geophysical pathway of brine, from the extraction places to the ports from where the final products are shipped, also encompasses vast worlds with complex material, social, and symbolic dynamics. I introduce the off-sites not only as spaces/places but as an analytical concept that allows to attend to the many constituents intertwined in the multifaceted processes of lithium extraction, production, and distribution, beyond the economic and productive realms. By foregrounding not only dependence on fossil fuels, but also infrastructures and chemical toxicity stemming from conversion plants and from the different processes along the route, the article shows how the exaltation of a univocal project of a green planetary future, damages these places, and erases them from public discourse on lithium extraction—thus silently aggravating structural inequalities and the precariousness of quotidian life for inhabitants, while producing dystopian scenarios.