'Feast today, famine tomorrow': South America longs for benefits of lithium demand boom | AFP

The turquoise glimmer of open-air pools contrasts sharply with the dazzling white of salt flats in Latin America's "lithium triangle," where hope resides for a better life fueled by a metal bonanza. A key component of batteries used in electric cars, demand has exploded for lithium -- the "white gold" found in Chile, Argentina and Bolivia in quantities larger than anywhere else in the world.