Massive lithium deposit found in Afghanistan. Could this be the real reason we are still over there losing American troops and paying for trillions of dollars in war so corporations can make a fortune at our expense!

Massive lithium deposit found in Afghanistan

By Duncan Geere

14 June 10

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Pentagon officials have announced that vast deposits of minerals have been found under the swirling sands of Afghanistan, including huge amounts of lithium -- a vital material in the manufacture of rechargeable batteries. The discovery could completely overturn the country's economy, injecting considerable wealth into the region.

It's thought that an estimated $1 trillion's worth of metals -- iron, copper, cobalt, gold and the aforementioned lithium -- are below the surface, which could turn Afghanistan into one of the most important mining areas in the world. One internal Pentagon memo, quoted by the New York Times, claims that Afghanistan could become the "Saudi Arabia of lithium", referring to the vast amounts of oil beneath the gulf peninsula.

The deposits were discovered after US geologists came across a series of old charts at the Afghan geological survey in 2004, which hinted at significant resources buried below the surface. Soviet scientists had collected the data when the country was occupied in the 1980s, but then set aside when they withdrew at the fall of the Iron Curtain. During the civil war that took place in the 1990s, a small group of Afghan geologists took the charts to their homes and hid them, and they were only returned after the Taliban government had been ousted by the USA in 2001.

It'll take many years to develop the infrastructure required to exploit the deposit to its fullest, and the process will likely be taken slowly due to the risk of the Taliban or even other large countries like China and India seeing the huge deposit as the US economically encroaching on the region. There's also the problem that the areas where the deposits are located are primarily in the south and east of the country -- where, at the time of writing, the fighting is particularly intense.

There's even more questions. Will Afghan president Hamid Karzai's young government be able to resist the lure of corruption, and fight the power of local warlords and tribal leaders powerful in rural areas? Will the region, which has pretty much zero history of environmental protection, be able to begin the mining process without destroying the country's fragile ecosystem?

If, however, those challenges can be overcome then an increased flow of lithium into the worlds' technology companies should help drive down the prices of expensive rechargeable batteries, and therefore phones,cameras, laptops and perhaps even fuel the growth of electric cars. 

Update: Wired US's Danger Room blog sounds a cautionary note on the timing of this announcement.

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Story
Written by Duncan Geere
Edited by Nate Lanxon

Photo
CC-licensed: Dvidshub

Tags
Afghanistan, Batteries,Mining, Lithium,Minerals, USA

Comments

1. Well Mr Obama, that's a good reason to continue to occupy Afghanistan!   

   Moh

   Jun 16th 2010
2. MNNOM   

   SONIAT

   Jul 24th 2010
3. Does it not at least make a person take pause and wonder if their is possibly an alterior motive for the U.S. being in Afganistan now that this "discovery" has been revealed?   

   Jay

   Oct 18th 2010

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