Lithium and Brine Geochemistry in the Salars of the Southern Puna, Andean Plateau of Argentina

Romina Lucrecia Lopez Steinmetz , Stefano Salvi (1) , Carisa Sarchi , Carla Santamans (2) , Lorena Cecilia Lopez Steinmetz

1 GET - Géosciences Environnement Toulouse
2 CONICET/Universidad Nacional de Jujuy

16 The Andean plateau is a small region of South America extending between northwest 17 Argentina, southwest Bolivia and northern Chile. It concentrates the largest global resources of 18 lithium brines in its numerous salars. Of these, the giant salars in Bolivia and Chile have been 19 relatively well studied, however, only little is known about the smaller, but numerous salars in 20 the Argentine Puna region. In this article, we present the results of the first regional-scale 21 reconnaissance exploration of the twelve major salars situated in the southern part of the Puna 22 plateau (24°S-26°30'S). Hydrochemical data indicate that shallowest brines are characterized 23 by highly variable Li concentrations, with mean Li grades ranging between 57 and 570 mg L-1 , 24 and mean Li:Mg ratios from 0.01 to 1.24. A survey of the brine chemistry of the salars across 25

Domaines: Géologie appliquée; Géochimie

Romina Lucrecia Lopez Steinmetz, Stefano Salvi, Carisa Sarchi, Carla Santamans, Lorena Cecilia Lopez Steinmetz. Lithium and Brine Geochemistry in the Salars of the Southern Puna, Andean Plateau of Argentina. Economic Geology, 2020, 115, pp.1079 - 1096. ⟨10.5382/econgeo.4754⟩. ⟨hal-02989895⟩