Matt Bevan

Well, let me take you to an exotic alien landscape high on the rooftop of South America.

We're in Bolivia at the world's largest salt flat.

Beneath the salt pan surface, a vast buried treasure valued at more than one trillion US dollars.

It's not gold.

It's not silver.

It's lithium.

Lithium, the world's lightest metal, has a seemingly mystical range of applications.

Lithium-ion batteries are playing an enormous role in the global transition to renewable energy, and Bolivia's salt flats have the largest lithium deposits in the world.

The problem is, it's Bolivia.

Bolivian President Ebo Morales and his Mines Minister are resolute.

They plan to harness lithium at their own pace.

The socialist Bolivian government won't just open up the salt flat for a foreign mining company to exploit and ship the profits overseas.

And even if that wasn't the case, the flat is not exactly easy to access.

A freezing nowhere.

3,700 metres above sea level.

It's in the middle of the Andes, hundreds of kilometres from the coast.

We know that it's incredibly difficult to access because many have tried.

On the banks of the salt flat, there is a train graveyard full of locomotives abandoned by failed mining ventures.

This renders exporting the lithium or any resources over the Andes very expensive.

Fortunately, other countries also have lithium, which is much more conveniently located.