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How the rise of green tech is feeding another environmental crisis
The world's race to decarbonise has led to the rise of electric cars - and with it, soaring demand for lithium, which is required for the batteries
Beneath the salt flats of the Atacama Desert lie the world's largest reserves of lithium, a soft, silvery-white metal that is an essential component of the batteries that power electric cars, laptops and solar energy storage. A planned joint enterprise between SQM and Chile's state mining company Codelco has just secured regulatory approval for a quota to extract at least 2.5 million metric tonnes of lithium metal equivalent per year and boost production until 2060. It says increasing production capacity will be based on incorporating new technologies to minimise the environmental and social impact and that the high "value" of lithium due to its role in the global energy transition could provide "opportunities" for the country's economic development.
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