Spodumene Prices, page-2530

I've been to the Atacama desert and the Bolivian's Uyuni salt flat. As a tourist and a person interested in geology, they are amazing. One is described as Mars on earth (almost no rain) and the other simply a largest mirror during its rain season. They are both a dry place (Uyini has rain though but beyond that time it's completely dry). The Andean range harvests all rain for the east side of South America and create the Amazon. The brine existed below the salt crust which was pumped out and sun dried. All water part of it is vapourised uselessly leaving the salt for further processing to Lithium concentrate. This of course will leave a disaster for the long-term for a region that has so little rain and little access to water. It's a huge place but I believe the Li mining is not sustainable. You can read a recent article on AFR regarding this issue.