Geosciences Working Group

lecturer: Prof. Dr. Simone Kasemann
Arid climate and active tectonics have formed and preserved numerous drainless basins on the Altiplano-Puna Plateau in the central Andes of South America since the dawn of the Cenozoic. Some of these basins contain salt lakes or salars with lithium-bearing brine deposits that currently account for about 30 % of global lithium production and represent more than 70 % of global lithium resources. The occurrence of the largest and most important lithium reserves in the Central Andes is geographically confined to the "lithium triangle," an informal term used by the mining industry to refer to the area between southern Bolivia with the Salar de Uyuni, northwestern Argentina with the Salar de Hombre Muerto, and northeastern Chile with the Salar de Atacama.

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