From Saltpeter to Lithium

The driest non-polar desert on Earth has fed the world’s industries for 150 years: saltpeter for fertiliser and explosives, then copper, now lithium for batteries. Students follow each boom across the Atacama and ask who gets the water, the jobs and the profits.

What students will learn

• Explain the geology behind Chile’s nitrate, copper and lithium deposits
• Compare open-pit copper mining with lithium extraction from brine
• Weigh mining’s demand for water against communities and ecosystems
• Connect the Atacama to the global energy transition

Day by day

1. Day 1–2, Iquique: The saltpeter era. Humberstone and Santa Laura, abandoned nitrate company towns and a UNESCO World Heritage site. How saltpeter made fortunes in Europe, set off the War of the Pacific and collapsed once synthetic nitrate arrived.
2. Day 3, Pampa del Tamarugal: Across the desert. Overland to Calama through the Pampa del Tamarugal, stopping at the giant geoglyphs of Cerros Pintados.
3. Day 4, Calama: Copper at Chuquicamata. Chuquicamata, one of the largest open-pit copper mines in the world, now moving underground. Copper is Chile’s biggest export; we look at how it is mined, refined and shipped.
4. Day 5–6, San Pedro de Atacama: Lithium and water. The Salar de Atacama, home to some of the world’s largest lithium brine operations, and the Chaxa lagoon in the Los Flamencos reserve. Meetings with Lickanantay community representatives on water rights, farming and benefit-sharing agreements.
5. Day 7, San Pedro de Atacama: Energy from the desert. The El Tatio geysers at sunrise and a session on the Atacama’s solar boom, under some of the strongest sunlight on the planet.
6. Day 8, Calama: Departure. Transfer to Calama airport.