Lithium boom comes to Brazil's 'misery valley'

Aracuai, Brazil (AFP) June 15, 2023

In a cloud of gray dust, a heavy-duty excavator loads a truck with stone blocks containing lithium, the "white gold" of the clean-energy revolution, which some hope will transform this parched, impoverished region of Brazil. Sun-scorched and drought-prone, the Jequitinhonha valley, in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais, is one of the poorest places in the country. But the region, nic