Lithium mine on Salar de Atacama. Satellite image of evaporation ponds (white rectangles, lower right) on the Salar de Atacama drainage basin in Chile. Below the surface of this drainage basin, which is an ancient seabed, is lithium-rich brine that is pumped to the surface to evaporate. The salts are processed for the metal lithium, a key component of rechargeable batteries and other electronics. These evaporation ponds are located near the Cordillera de la Sal mountains (upper right). This image was obtained on 29 April 2017, by the by the Copernicus Sentinel-2A satellite.