SALAR DE UYUNI: EL DEPÓSITO EVAPORÍTICO MÁS GRANDE DEL MUNDO

Abstract

Salar de Uyuni, with approximately 10,500 km², is considered the largest evaporitic deposit in the world and is located south of the Bolivian Altiplano. In 2008, the Bolivian government declared a national priority to explore the evaporitic resources of Salar de Uyuni, which initiated a new stage of studies inside the Salar de Uyuni, with emphasis on the study carried out from the E-036 drilling to 460 m depth, which is the deepest drilling carried out to date. This drilling allowed the petrological characterization of the sedimentary succession that fills the Salar de Uyuni basin, defining the different sedimentary lithofacies and sedimentary cycles, establishing the chronology of sedimentary filling and, finally, proposing a model of sedimentary evolution. Yacimientos de Litio Bolivianos, currently the institution responsible for the development and industrialization of evaporitic resources in Bolivia, estimated the resources in the Salar de Uyuni, supported by the development of a hydrostratigraphic model, elaborated with the integration of hydrogeological data from pumping tests and stratigraphic data from drilling, finally confirming that Salar de Uyuni has the largest lithium reserve in the world with 21 million tons. Keywords: halite; gypsum; nontronite; illite; evaporite; drilling, dating; lithium reserve.