Most researchers agree that lithium demand will only increase. Afghanistan''s estimated reserves put it among global leaders — if the metal can be extracted.
With the Taliban capturing Kabul on the August 15, Afghanistan is predicted to soon lose most of its Western investors. Indeed, it is highly likely that foreign companies sharing Western values will shy away from involvement with a militant group that openly opposes democracy and violates human rights. Nevertheless, as Aristotle and Rabelais'' famous postulate goes, "natura abhorret vacuum" — nature abhors a vacuum. Other nations, less concerned with social issues in Afghanistan, may soon be engaged in making deals with the new radical rulers of the country.
Unfortunately for the West, this may mean not only a loss in the battle for human rights, but also in a lesser known struggle for technology dominance in the energy transition.Afghanistan – the ''Saudi Arabia of Lithium''?
Unfortunately for the West, this may mean not only a loss in the battle for human rights, but also in a lesser known struggle for technology dominance in the energy transition. Afghanistan – the ''Saudi Arabia of Lithium''?
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Aliaksei Patonia is a visiting research fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies and a ReThink.CEE fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. He currently focuses on the global energy transition and policies that could help incentivize large-scale long-term energy storage. Aliaksei graduated from the University of Oxford and the University of St Andrews.
With Lithium being much in focus due to the increasing demand for the electrification of many areas on the planet, expectations and dreams around the delicate metal grow by the day. Many electronics devices, most devices with rechargeable batteries, modern electric vehicles in particular, but also in storage and balancing battery systems for the electric grid – they require Lithium. All this is stirring the dreams of those governments, regions and countries having Lithium as one of their raw materials at hand. Like Afghanistan.
This puts light onto a number of opportunities but even more on the obstacles. First and foremost, all known facts of the areas where Lithium can be found, and the calculated amount are based on Russian explorations from the mid 80ies and even earlier British information. Thus, the database is at least 40 years old. These figures neither have been thoroughly updated, nor verified, and not properly aggregated, too. Furthermore, there is a good chance to find more regions with Lithium as well as other sought-after minerals and metals.
What is needed to attract foreign countries and companies to go into the Lithium mining business in Afghanistan? To obtain the raw materials lots of rocks/minerals need to be transported to the processing plants, ideally located nearby. Thus, safe well-built roads for heavy-duty trucks or heavy-duty train tracks coming from the mines to the processing plants and from there to the borders for export are needed. Access to these remote areas, thus the infrastructure, plays a significant role.
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