Francisco Urdinez, Director of ICLAC and Juliana González Jauregui, Associate Researcher participated in the event
On August 25, the discussion "The Lithium Triangle and the Geopolitics of Critical Mineralswas held and organized by the Natural Resources Division (DRN) of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), together with the UC Center for International Studies.The event is part of the program "Regional Cooperation for the Sustainable Management of Mining Resources in Andean Countries" (MinSus) aims to address the opportunities and challenges that lithium's exploitation and supply chain imply for the region.
Director of ICLAC an academic at the Institute of Political Science UC, Francisco Urdinez, commented during the panel that China maintains an advantage over other countries in the world that work with this raw material, based on three key variables: speed of project implementation and cost reduction, ability to scale and internationalize these projects, and supply chain assurance, although regarding this last point, he noted that “The main Chinese mining companies have investments in large lithium deposits, but this is where they have the greatest difficulties. Geographical distance from some of the epicenters makes it difficult to guarantee control of global chains.”
For her part, Associate researcher and affiliated academic of FLACSO – Argentina, Juliana González Jauregui, mentioned that Latin America faces a crucial challenge in this context and that it is the lack of regional coordination initiatives regarding critical minerals: “The efforts of each country, concerning lithium, have until now been independent, without cooperation between countries and that undoubtedly poses a challenge.”
In relation to this, for Dr. Urdinez, the current Latin American situation shows a lack of multilateralism, at the expense of unilateral views by each country who perceive each other as competitors.
Likewise, Dr. Urdinez emphasized that "More efforts are needed so that foreign investments in clean energy projects in our countries include value-added requirements, so that the processes not only promote the energy transition, but rather that they are aligned with productive regional development”.
Other topics discussed included the relevance of lithium extraction to the local communities surrounding the deposits where lithium is extracted, the need for regional coordination between lithium-producing countries, and ensuring the socio-environmental sustainability of these projects.