.…Deposits in the country include iron, copper, cobalt, gold and industrial metals such as lithium, which is used in coolants, batteries for laptops and mobile phones as well as in pharmaceutical production.
Lithium batteries are being developed as a low-carbon way of powering vehicles, with Sanyo recently saying it was to start mass producing a lithium-ion battery later this year for solar cell systems and electric cars. The report claimed that Afghanistan contained so much of the metallic element that it could become the “Saudi Arabia of Lithium”.
The US Geological Survey began aerial surveys of Afghanistan in 2006, using data that had been collected by Soviet mining experts during the Soviet occupation in the 1980s…(source: telegraph.co.uk)
On a side note, guess who has sent a mining team? JP Morgan Chase!:
WASHINGTON -- Mining companies around the world are eager to exploit Afghanistan's newly discovered mineral wealth, but executives of Western firms caution that war, corruption and lack of roads and other infrastructure are likely to delay exploration for years.
A few high-risk investors are sufficiently intrigued by the country's potential to take an early look. JP Morgan, for instance, has just sent a team of mining experts to Afghanistan to examine possible projects to develop.
Read the whole story: New York Times
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