‘The Dubai of South America’: how the promise of riches from lithium mining turned to dust in Bolivia

Politicians have long promised the critical metal will rescue the economy but Indigenous locals say the push to exploit vast reserves threatens the ecosystem and their livelihoods

• Photographs by Sara Aliaga Ticona

Growing up near Bolivia’s Uyuni salt flats, Franz Alí Ramos remembers playing in the high-altitude wetlands near his home during the rainy season. “It was a beautiful recreation area for us and for animals,” he says.

Now, the wetlands have given way to cracked, sunbaked earth – a change that Alí Ramos blames on nearby operations by Bolivia’s state lithium corporation, Yacimientos de Litio Bolivianos (YLB). The government has recently signed lithium mining contracts with two foreign companies – one Russian and the other Chinese – and residents fear more serious damage is yet to come.