Huge deposits of lithium have been detected in Afghanistan. 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. Batteries for electric cars, smartphones and laptops could make lithium the crude oil of the 21st century. Lithium, like most of the world’s oil, is found in regressive, inaccessible nations bearing animosity toward America. Countries like Argentine, Boliva and most just lately, Afghanistan, are called “Saudi Arabias of lithium” due to their confirmed mother lodes of the metal.
Lithium – fuel for Afghan corruption
Rich lithium deposits in Afghanistan were announced Monday by American government officials. The New York Times reports that nearly $1 trillion worth of lithium and other minerals permeate Afghanistan, including cobat, iron, copper and gold. could either hurt or help U.S. objectives for the war in Afghanistan. Vast mineral wealth could lift the Afghan government out from generations of war and bring about peace. An additional possibility: the Taliban could intensify the Afghanistan war now that the presence of lithium and other valuable minerals has raised the stakes. Lithium adds an additional lucrative target for Afghan corruption regardless.
Game-changer for the Afghanistan war
Afghanistan lithium, along with other precious metals, could make the country a new frontier for international mining. But Afghanistan’s economy, currently depending on opium cultivation, has none of the heavy industry required to capitalize on its mineral wealth. China may be within the lead to exploit Afghanistan lithium, despite the vast quantities of money and human lives The US has expended for Afghanistan. Strategic control of Afghanistan’s mineral resources, according to bogger Aziz Poonawalla, can be a flashpoint of conflict between the U.S. and China. A corrupt Hamid Karzai, other analysts believe, will make an effort to hustle the U.S. out of Afghanistan and offer his soul to China.
Boliva’s lithium pipe dream
Lithium in Afghanistan is large news because now the incredibly backward country could become the leading supplier of the rare-earth metal used in the lithium ion batteries that power hundreds of millions of wise phones and laptops. Automakers are counting on a future of electric cars made possible by advanced lithium-ion batteries. A recent article in the New Yorker reports that Boliva has nearly half the world’s known lithium lying undisturbed under vast salt flats. Whether or not Boliva ever benefits from its lithium stash is not clear, according to experts. Bolivia’s socialist government stays in power by demonizing the U.S., and it’s infrastructure is nearly as primitive as Afghanistan’s. Boliva needs to establish 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 within the next 21st century war.
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