The Atacama region belonged to Bolivia until 1883. It comprises the north of Chile  up to the border of Peru. It was first inhabited by atacameños, indigenous peoples together with the A peoplesymara.

 

During the middle of the 15th century,  from 1536, after a brief domination of the Inka Empire, Atacama passed under Spanish rule, which began the progressive decline of the original communities.

 

The Atacameños spoke the kunza language, which means “our”. The name Atacama, according to Kunza etymology, one of the indigenous languages of the region, comes from the wordAtchcamar  which refers to land. The literal translation of the term is “head of the country”, and the Spanish pronunciation is what caused the writing Atacama.

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During Chile's Colonial Period, the use of Spanish in Atacama was enforced by force, imposing fines and physical punishments on those who spoke kunza on Atacameños. Until the beginning of the 20th century, Kunza became an extinct language and, as it is an agrapha (non-written) language, its reconstruction has been difficult nowadays. However, in 2005, the first Spanish-Kunza / Kunza-Spanish dictionary was published, which rescued 900 words that survived through the chants, rites, myths and toponymy of the region.

 

San Pedro de Atacama is an oasis in the middle of the desert, it is located at 2,500 meters above sea level, in the Antofagasta Region of Chile, it has just over 5,000 inhabitants.

 

To the east, San Pedro is bounded by a volcanic branch of the Andes Mountains. Volcanoes vary in shape and height, rising between 4,500 meters and 6,000 meters above sea level. The most impressive are Licancabur, Lascar and Sairecabur. 

 

Above the oasis and the salt flat, between 4,000 and 4,400 meters above sea level is the Altiplano, or Puna, a plateau of smooth open plains, formed by the erosion of mountains and volcanoes, full of wetlands, lakes, salt lakes , plains and geysers.

 

The largest geothermal area in Latin America, El Tatio, is in the Altiplano and located 95 km from San Pedro, at 4,200 meters above sea level. El Tatio covers 10 km2 and has around 80 geysers. Eruptions can exceed 10 meters, with water reaching an average temperature of 86º C, while underground 240º C has been recorded. Desert temperatures range between 0 °C  at night at 40 °C during the day.

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According to the report made by Brasil de Fato, in August 2022, the Salar do Atacama, with an extension of more than 1,200 square kilometers, is the largest source of lithium in the world. The “King of Lithium” as it is known Julio Ponce Lerou, is the largest shareholder of one of the lithium mining companies, Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile (SQM), and son-in-law of the military dictator Augusto Pinochet. Area prohibited for visitation.

 

Lithium is extracted by pumping brine underground in the Salarletting it evaporate for months before carrying on with the extraction process. The company steals the water to extract the lithium. The concentrate that remains after evaporation is converted into lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide, which are then exported, forming the key raw materials in the production of lithium ion batteries. Approximately one-third of the world's lithium comes from Chile. According to Goldman Sachs, “Lithium is the new gasoline”. During the trip, what I heard most from the guides during the desert tours was: "Atacama will end".

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Ownership of the Salar is disputed between the State, the native peoples of this territory and private companies. To produce one ton of lithium in the Salares de Atacama, 2,000 tons of water are evaporated, which causes significant damage both to the availability of water and to the quality of underground freshwater reserves. Chile is currently the second largest producer of lithium in the world market, behind Australia.

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