"It is not, as they say, that they (lithium companies) are going to save the planet... Rather it is us who have to give our lives to save the planet," said Chavez, of Santuario de Tres Pozos in Jujuy province.
A neighbor, 47-year-old street food seller Barbara Quipildor added fiercely: "I want them to leave us alone, in peace. I don't want lithium... My concern is the future of my children's children."
About 300 kilometers (190 miles) north of Jujuy, the salar of Uyuni in Bolivia holds more lithium than anywhere else -- a quarter of global resources, according to the USGS.
Half of the residents in the region -- which is also rich in silver and tin -- live in poverty, household surveys show.
The country's former leftist president Evo Morales nationalized hydrocarbons and other resources such as lithium towards the start of his 2006-2019 mandate and vowed Bolivia would set the metal's global price.
In Rio Grande, a small town near the Yacimientos de Litio Bolivianos (YLB) lithium plant, Morales' plans were met with excitement.