Afghanistan has emerged as a possible major source of lithium. Lithium, mined from brine and clay, is considered the energy resource that will make electric cars cost effective enough to be practical for millions of drivers. Lithium batteries for cars, phones and computers could give the metal more strategic value than oil in the 21st century. Lithium, like the majority of the world’s oil, is found in regressive, inaccessible nations bearing animosity toward America. Countries like Argentine, Boliva and most most recently, Afghanistan, are called “Saudi Arabias of lithium” due to their confirmed mother lodes of the metal.
Article Resource: Lithium in Afghanistan for electric cars – a blessing and a curse By Personal Money Store
A corrupt Afghanistan eyes lithium
The discovery of rich Afghan lithium deposits was announced by American officials Monday. The New York Times reports that nearly $1 trillion worth of lithium and other minerals permeate Afghanistan, including cobat, iron, copper and gold. The previously undiscovered minerals, existing in quantities far beyond known reserves elsewhere, could be both good news and bad news for the U.S. Afghanistan war. Afghanistan’s newly found mineral riches could introduce peace to a country where war has defined life for generations. Another possibility: the Taliban could intensify the Afghanistan war now the presence of lithium and other valuable minerals has raised the stakes. Lithium adds another lucrative target for Afghan corruption regardless.
The Afghanistan war and lithium
Afghanistan lithium, along with other precious metals, could make the country a new frontier for international mining. But a mining infrastructure that will convert those minerals to wealth can’t be found in an economy depending on opium cultivation and trafficking. China may be in the lead to exploit Afghanistan lithium, despite the vast quantities of money and human lives America has expended for Afghanistan. Blogger Aziz Poonawalla postulates than U.S. strategic control of Afghanistan’s minerals will be contested aggressively by China. Analysts speculate that Obama will postpone plans to withdraw troops from the Afghanistan war, when a corrupt Hamid Karzai will cozy up to China and demand that U.S. forces clear out sooner.
Bolivian lithium tempers Afghan expectations
Lithium in Afghanistan is a “man bites dog” story because hundreds of millions of smartphones and laptops could depend on a country full of goats, mud huts and primitive tribal animosity. Automakers are counting on a future of electric cars made possible by advanced lithium-ion batteries. The New Yorker reports that half the known lithium resources within the world could possibly be waiting under a huge expanse of salt flats in Bolivia. Yet experts doubt that Bolivian will benefit from its lithium treasure. Boliva is a socialist country at odds with the U.S., with a primitive infrastructure much like Afghanistan. Boliva needs to set up a twentieth-century economy before it can ever hope to enrich itself with lithium as a twenty-first century fuel.
Or become the prize for opponents in the next 21st century war.
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Martin Rogen 