Digging for lithium in Afghanistan

We depend on non-renewable natural resources, and are working hard to reduce our dependency on conflict-ridden fossil fuels, like our dwindling oil reserves. New electric vehicles will save us having to drill for oil, but we are becoming more dependent on the mineral that makes those battery-driven cars run: lithium.

The growth potential for this key raw material, which drives the lithium-ion batteries in iPods, iPads, BlackBerries and mobile phones, is huge. New lithium-air batteries are being developed to provide a far higher energy density. The world demand for lithium is expected to grow by six percent every year from now to 2020. Lithium reserves are mainly in the "ABC" triangle of Argentina, Bolivia and Chile. But mining for lithium has fueled conflict: The Bolivian government wants to protect the country's salt flats, a unique natural landscape, and in Chile, mining uses up two thirds of the local drinking water. In addition, the cheapest extraction method is not sustainable, as it uses toxic PVC.

So the US public was electrified recently by an article published in The New York Times, saying that untapped lithium deposits, alongside huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt and gold, critical industrial metals, had been "discovered" in Afghanistan by American geologists working for the Pentagon. Afghanistan could turn into "the Saudi Arabia of lithium", the article said. Apparently, however, the "trillion-dollar mineral deposits" story is old and in fact part of the US government's desperate effort to shore up support for the war in Afghanistan.

No minerals can be extracted from Afghanistan's hard-to-reach, barren mountains when you have insurgents disrupting production and trade. So it remains doubtful that the Taliban or any subsequent regime in that unstable region will be willing and able to exploit the economic potential of lithium anytime soon.

On the next page, we review the vocabulary used above to talk about extracting natural resources.

Anne Hodgson