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The Lithium Supplement 2010: Afghanistan

July 27, 2010 - 00:00 GMT

KEYWORDS: Lithium supplement , Li , Afghanistan , Pentagon

While Afghanistan’s mineral wealth is undoubtedly huge, a review of the country’s lithium resources shows that the Pentagon has spoken too soon on its potential to be the new “Saudi Arabia of lithium”

The Pentagon memo, leaked at the end of June, said that a lithium brine resource found in Ghazni province could turn Afghanistan into the “Saudi Arabia of lithium”. Despite this being a term coined and repeatedly used for Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni, it is a term that is generally wrong on many levels considering lithium is not a fuel source and one that lacks foundation in relation to Afghanistan.

The first slip by the US Defense department’s The Task Force for Business & Stability Operations (TFBSO) was that while showcasing the value of Afghanistan’s resources to the world’s media, lithium which has been hype-generator for the whole story was not mentioned at all in the list. Patrolling the Logar province in Afghanistan which the US government claims it could host lithium resources on a par with Bolivia. US Department of Defense“Lithium isn’t in the table because...

All material subject to strictly enforced copyright laws. © Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC.

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