Why Finding Lithium in Afghanistan Is a Big Deal, Even If It Never Leaves the Ground

Thursday, June 24, 2010 - 10:31 in Earth & Climate

Lithium Evaporation Pond Part of SQM's operations on the Salar de Atacama in northern Chile Seth FletcherLithium is cheap and widely available, so why do we care about a new resource in a war zone? Because it's another counter to the irrational fear that the automobile's lithium-powered electric future is doomed before it begins Immediately after the New York Times published a report last week of the Pentagon's "discovery" of nearly $1 trillion worth of mineral reserves in Afghanistan, the backlash began. The U.S. Geological Survey released a report on the country's mineral reserves in 2007, it turned out. Why was this coming up now? The bloggers pounced. By the end of the week, the accepted wisdom was that there was nothing new in this latest piece of government spin. Drowned in the noise, however, was a fascinating bit of news: that just this month a Pentagon team was hunting for minerals...

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