Future electric car batteries made with Afghanistan lithium?

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. Batteries for electric cars, smartphones and laptops could make lithium the crude oil of the 21st century. Much like many of the world’s oil, vast deposits of lithium are found in remote, backward countries hostile to the United States. Countries like Argentine, Boliva and most recently, Afghanistan, are called "Saudi Arabias of lithium" due to their confirmed mother lodes of the metal.

Article Source: Lithium in Afghanistan for electric cars – a blessing and a curse

A corrupt Afghanistan eyes lithium

Rich lithium deposits in Afghanistan were announced Monday by American government officials. The New York Times reports that Afghanistan has deposits of lithium and huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt and gold worth nearly $1 trillion. 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. Vast mineral wealth could lift the Afghan government out from generations of war and bring about peace. Or the known presence of lithium and other precious metals could increase Taliban resolve to control the country and intensify the Afghanistan war. Lithium adds another lucrative target for Afghan corruption regardless.

Lithium and the outcome of the Afganistan war

Afghanistan lithium, along with other precious metals, could make the country a new frontier for international mining. But Afghanistan’s economy, presently depending on opium cultivation, has none of the heavy industry required to capitalize on its mineral wealth. To exploit Afghanistan lithium, China may have an edge, despite heavy U.S. investment of billions in treasure and barrels of blood within the Afghanistan war. Blogger Aziz Poonawalla postulates than U.S. strategic control of Afghanistan's minerals can 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 quicker.

Afghanistan's lithium scenario like Boliva's

Lithium in Afghanistan is big news because now the incredibly backward country could become the leading supplier of the rare-earth metal used within the lithium ion batteries that power hundreds of millions of smart 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. Boliva is a socialist country at odds with the U.S., with a primitive infrastructure much like Afghanistan. For Boliva to enjoy the promise of lithium as a twenty-first century fuel, it must first develop the basics of a twentieth-century economy.

Or become the prize for opponents in the next 21st century war.

Additional information at these websites

www.nytimes.com

blog.beliefnet.com

www.newyorker.com