'The Dubai of South America': how the promise of riches from lithium mining turned to dust in Bolivia

Growing up near Bolivia's Uyuni salt flats, Franz Alà­ Ramos remembers playing in the high-altitude wetlands near his home during the rainy season. "It was a beautiful recreation area for us and for animals," he says. Now, the wetlands have given way to cracked, sunbaked earth - a change that Alà­ Ramos blames on nearby operations by Bolivia's state lithium corporation, Yacimientos de Litio Bolivianos (YLB). The government has recently signed lithium mining contracts with two foreign companies - one Russian and the other Chinese - and residents fear more serious damage is yet to come. "Our communities are in…