ATACAMA DESERT, Chile — At the top of a craggy ... turquoise pools on the surface of the salt flat where it evaporates. The concentrated lithium carbonate salts are driven in great convoys ...

the closest town to the lithium mining operations, in the Atacama Salt Flat on Saturday 12 of April, 2024. Antofagasta, Chile.

Three companies have now set up operations on the Atacama salt flat. Tilopozo, a former wetland, that according to Peine inhabitants, dried because of the water extraction by Lithium companies.

the closest town to the lithium mining operations, in the Atacama Salt Flat on Saturday 12 of April, 2024. Antofagasta, Chile. (Cristóbal Olivares for NPR) ByD declined a request for comment.