© Associated Press
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Copper, lithium, rare earth elements – Afghanistan’s bowels are rich in minerals that are considered vital for the energy and climate transition, experts say, quoted by AFP.
This underutilized resource is now in the hands of the Taliban.
There are deposits of bauxite, copper, iron, lithium and rare earth metals in Afghanistan, according to the latest report on mineral resources in Afghanistan, published in January 2021 by the US Geological Survey. As the world tries to get rid of fossil fuels such as oil and gas, these metals are increasingly being used to transport and store electricity.
Copper, which is essential for the production of electrical wires, broke its historical record on world markets this year, reaching a price of over 10 thousand dollars per ton. Lithium is a key resource for the energy transition and is used to store electricity in batteries, solar or wind farms. In 2020, it was included in the official list of 30 raw materials that are considered key to energy independence from the EU, along with cobalt, graphite, silicon and tantalum.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts in May that global demand for lithium will increase 40 times by 2040.
There are huge reserves of lithium in Afghanistan that have not been developed, Guillaume Pitron, author of The War on Rare Earths, told AFP. And rare earth elements such as neodymium, praseodymium or dysprosium, such as those in Afghanistan, are key to the production of magnets used in the industrial sectors of the future, such as wind energy or electric cars.
In total, the potential of all Afghanistan’s underground resources was estimated at $ 1 trillion in a 2013 joint UN-EU report. The country, whose mineral resources are legendary, has so far been known mostly for its precious stones (lazurite, emeralds, rubies, tourmaline), talc and marble. Afghanistan also mines coal and traditional metals such as iron.
Even before the Taliban’s victory in Afghanistan, China, which produces 40 percent of the world’s copper, nearly 60 percent of lithium and more than 80 percent of rare earth elements (according to the IEA), expressed support for certain factions in order to facilitate access to some particularly promising deposits, Pitron said. The Chinese do not commit their business to democratic principles, the author explains.
However, experts do not believe that Afghanistan will become an Eldorado for mineral resources and geopolitical terrain for the global energy transition because of the political uncertainty surrounding the Taliban’s rule. To do this, a stable political climate is needed, according to Pitron. In the mining industry, it can take 10 or 20 years between the discovery of a deposit and its operation. That is why no company wants to invest in a country where there is no stable political and legal framework.
Some investors would probably prefer to choose sources of supply that are a little more expensive but safer, Pitron said. / BTA
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