Why is ALL of the planet's lithium hidden right here?
More than half of the world's lithium reserves are hidden beneath a few salt lakes high in the Andes—a place with almost no rain, no roads, and almost no people. In this video, we explore how volcanic water has been quietly storing this metal underground for millions of years, why Bolivia has the largest lithium reserves on the planet but produces almost no lithium, and why the fate of the world's transition to electric vehicles is being decided on a few salt flats in South America.
We explain how lithium brine mining actually works, why prices collapsed after the boom of 2022, and the price the indigenous peoples who have lived on these salt flats for generations are already paying.
00:00 Introduction
00:20 What is lithium and why does the world need it?
01:40 How volcanoes and evaporation created the Lithium Triangle
04:20 Salar de Uyuni: the largest natural mirror on the planet
06:00 Why Bolivia has the largest reserves, but almost no production
08:30 How lithium is actually extracted from brine
10:30 The 2022 price boom and the global investment race
13:00 The 2023–2024 price collapse
14:30 The hidden price: water, land, and indigenous peoples
17:00 What's next: direct lithium extraction and the 2026 market
#lithium #Andes #electriccars #documentary #SouthAmerica #Bolivia #Chile #Argentina #mining #geology