The image below is a zoomed-out version of the more recent image. Nearly six years later, the size of the facility had grown significantly. The Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 acquired the first image above on April 12, 2013. Landsat satellites began to detect evidence of buildings and evaporation ponds in the southern end of the salt flat in 2011. The government began investing in a lithium mining operation at Salar de Uyuni about a decade ago. Yet with global demand for lithium rising, Bolivian leaders are trying hard to change this. Unlike the neighboring countries of Chile and Argentina, Bolivia has not been among the world’s top lithium producers. Geological Survey estimates that Bolivia holds about 15 percent of the world’s lithium.Īnd yet just a small fraction of it gets mined and used. ![]() Meanwhile, geologists think the mineral-rich, blue-green brine beneath the salt crust contains the world’s second-largest deposit of lithium, a valuable metal used to make rechargeable batteries. The spectacularly flat surface and mirror-like qualities during the wet season have turned Salar de Uyuni into a big draw for tourists and, periodically, racing enthusiasts. Covering more than 10,000 square kilometers, it is the largest salt pan in the world. ![]() When it eventually dried up, the salt-encrusted landscape of Salar de Uyuni remained. Forty thousand years ago, a large lake spread across southwestern Bolivia.
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