How much is the lithium buried in Afghanistan worth?

A decade earlier, the U.S. Defense Department, guided by the surveys of American government geologists, concluded that the vast wealth of lithium and other minerals buried in Afghanistan might be worth $1 trillion, more than enough to prop up the country’s fragile government.

Will Afghanistan's lithium mines be cost-efficient?

Even if Afghanistan’s mountains prove to hold high-quality lithium, the mines will be cost-efficient only if new roads, railways, ore-processing plants and power plants are built around them. Not a problem, say China’s strategic thinkers.

Does Afghanistan have an industrial base?

“Afghanistan lacks an industrial base, [but] they have great mineral resources, and no Westerners can compete with the Chinese when it comes to building infrastructure and tolerating hardship,” said Zhou Bo, a retired People’s Liberation Army senior colonel who is now an international security expert at Tsinghua University.

Is Afghanistan the Saudi Arabia of lithium?

The Pentagon dubbed Afghanistan ‘the Saudi Arabia of lithium.’ Now, it is American rivals that are angling to exploit those coveted reserves. Miners work to extract gemstones including kunzite and tourmaline in a mine in the Parun Valley in Afghanistan's Nurestan province. In doing so, they unearth lithium-bearing ore.