Apparently US geologists have found a $1trillion deposit of Lithium in Afghanistan. As Stephen Fry said: “Dare one hope that good will come out of it?”.
It will be very difficult as it is in an area with some of the worst of the fighting. I am also very concerned about US involvement; you can be sure that, under the guise of helping this impoverished and unprepared nation to make the most of it’s newly discovered mineral wealth, some US companies will be planning to get VERY rich out of this. Then there’s China, who’d like a piece of the action, and the potential environmental risks and we haven’t even mentioned the Taliban yet. But ultimately, it’s hard to see how revolutionising Afghanistan’s economy can harm it’s people more than the current situation, even if they don’t end up seeing all of what they should really be getting. So, yes, on the whole, I think we dare hope.
Any post with the subject line “Lithium” would be sadly lacking if it didn’t finish with a spot of Kurt:
