Is a lithium-ion battery race taking place in Afghanistan?

While Goldman Sachs predicts a tripling of the lithium market by 2025, a race to secure supplies is taking place in Afghanistan. The lithium-ion battery story begins with chemistry and ends with innovation.

Could lithium be used to produce batteries in Afghanistan?

The Taliban spokesman even mentioned the possibility to use the lithium to produce batteries inside Afghanistan and export them. Such a prospect appears far-fetched though. «Afghanistan has all the raw materials necessary to produce lithium-based batteries,» Dr. Wnuk told SIGA.

Could lithium be the backbone of Afghanistan's economy?

The economic impact of this mining discovery is simply enormous: the total reserves represent about 1,000 billion. The two main sources of lithium are hard rock sources in pegmatites and in solution within continental brines, both of which are present in Afghanistan. This might become the backbone of the Afghan economy.

Is there a lithium rush in Afghanistan?

Recent predictions of an alleged lithium rush in Afghanistan focus on lithium-bearing hard rock minerals mined in the eastern Afghan provinces of Nuristan and Kunar, from where also the stones seized by the Taliban in January 2023 originated. (That said, there are also reports on lithium-containing brines in other places in Afghanistan.

Will Afghanistan be the 'Saudi Arabia of lithium'?

According to the New York Times, a memo from the Pentagon predicted that Afghanistan will be the "Saudi Arabia of Lithium," a way to assert that Afghanistan is able to exceed Bolivia as the first world producer of lithium. The economic impact of this mining discovery is simply enormous: the total reserves represent about 1,000 billion.

Which minerals in Afghanistan have a high lithium content?

Finding minerals with higher lithium content is, even under the best of circumstances, difficult, as the theoretical lithium oxide content of the minerals that can be mined in large quantities in Afghanistan — spodumene and petalite — is at best only a few percent above the aforementioned example of 5% lithium oxide content.