Is public participation addressing just transition outcomes? Lithium extraction in the Chilean Maricunga salt flat

With the introduction of environmental impact assessment (EIA) regimes across Latin America, public participation has become a central procedural requirement for projects with significant environmental impacts. Drawing on the Salar Blanco lithium extraction project in Chile as a case study, we examine whether the institutionalisation of procedural environmental rights is sufficient to secure substantively just outcomes in the context of critical minerals extraction for the global energy transition. Building on just transitions frameworks, we argue that participation embedded in EIA processes does not automatically translate into distributive or recognitional justice outcomes. Instead, procedural mechanisms are shaped by structural constraints that limit their capacity to deliver broader justice outcomes. These include: (i) legal cultures within which public participation operates; (ii) scientific uncertainty regarding the environmental impacts of salt flat mining; (iii) the transnational nature of lithium supply chains, which decouple sites of extraction from sites of consumption and benefit.