Taliban Secures World's Largest Lithium Deposits After US Withdrawal From Afghanistan – Understanding Deep Politics

It's been more than a decade since we penned "The US"Discovers" Nearly $1 Trillion In Mineral Deposits In Afghanistan" in which we highlighted the colossal untapped mineral deposits that reside in Afghanistan.

Still, one thing is sure is that the Taliban now control the world's largest lithium deposits is becoming friendly with China.

Afghanistan is believed to have large deposits of gold, iron, copper, zinc, lithium and other rare-earth metals, valued at over $1 trillion.

In 2010, the US Department of Defense called Afghanistan "Saudi Arabia of lithium" after American geologists then discovered that the country's deposits amounted to at least a trillion dollars.

The Taliban is unlikely to sell the metal to Americans, and the United States views China, the world's largest lithium producer, as its main rival.

Access to Afghan central bank reserves has been denied to the Taliban by the US. The new Afghan leadership could also have trouble in convincing Chinese investors who once lost $3 billion in 2007 in a Taliban copper mine that could not be exploited due to persistent administration blunders.

Good reason for China to become involved in the extraction of lithium in Afghanistan may not only be the wealth it could generate, but also to avoid more ecological damage caused by lithium mining on its own soil and to limit the scope of Islamic infiltration.

https://understandingdeeppolitics.org/taliban-secures-worlds-largest-lithium-deposits-after-us-withdrawal-from-afghanistan/