Afghanistan is a rocky, troublesome land that’s generally fit for growing opium and not much else. The combination of soil and climate just doesn’t take well to other types of farming, nor are other crops lucrative enough to support the struggling nation which spent many years under Taliban rule. That all might have changed, as the United States has announced the discovery of some $1 trillion dollars worth of mineral reserves in the Afghan mountains, including gold, cobalt, iron, copper, and lithium. That’s $1,000,000,000,000 typed out, just to show you how many zeroes that is.
This is a huge development for both Afghanistan and the United States. The Afghan government is struggling beneath the weight of corruption (real and perceived), and the addition of this much money won’t help matters. China wants the mineral deposits, and have already been active in the region with lots of bribes for contracts. Provinces and the national government are expected to squabble over the mineral rights, which just happen to be in the areas of heaviest Taliban resistance. There’s also the fact Afghanistan has no mining infrastructure.
This could be a life-changing discovery for that country. The lode of lithium (used in rechargeable batteries for every single smartphone and hybrid cars) is so huge that Pentagon memos describe Afghanistan as “the Saudi Arabia of lithium.” Such a miracle discovery might cause a complete societal revolution in that country.
Tags: Afghanistan, lithium, Afghanistan sitting on 1 trillion dollars of mineral reserves, mineral reserves, huge lithium deposit discovered in Afghanistan, the Saudi Arabia of lithium
