This story appears in the February 2019 issue of National Geographic magazine.
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This metal is powering today's technology—at what price?
As demand soars for powerful batteries, Bolivia dreams of striking it rich by tapping its huge lithium deposit. But will its people benefit?
While the indigenous Aymara population harvests and sells salt crusted on the surface of the Salar de Uyuni salt flat, the much more lucrative lithium is dissolved in brine found deep underground.
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