Every day, the world economy observes new actors entering the game. Some of them could be ones we would never expect but anyway, there they are. Today, we are about to take a look at how Afghanistan could become a new “Saudi Arabia”.

After years of fighting on the soil of Afghanistan and even under its floor, western scientists finally discover that the country has other attractions to make people come to this country. Many years ago, in a time when you could still feel the presence of the Iron Curtain, Soviet scientists discovered that Afghanistan’s soil was full of wonders; particularly rare metals. When ending USSR withdrew from this area, civil wars started to burst all around the country, so a group of Afghan geologists decided to hide this information until the Taliban government ends.

When United States of America removed the Taliban’s from the government of Afghanistan in 2001, the same geologists chose that the information should go public now. Then in 2004, US geologists finally carried out some tests and surveys and they arrived to the same conclusions: The country’s ground could be compared to a buried chest of wonders.

Today, US Pentagon is starting to elaborate action plans to find a way to have access to all this wealth. This new vein is estimated to be worth $1 Trillion. It could be the boost Afghanistan had needed to start rebuilding itself after years of intense war all around the place. Even more than that, it is said that the country could become the “Saudi Arabia of Lithium”. It would be turned in one of the biggest mining area of the whole world.

Lithium is a material we use in large amounts to create any kind of batteries. With all the wireless or handy technological devices we created these days, batteries industry can just not disappear, and is even more expected to grow in importance to become one of the major technological industries in the future (It could be used for electrical cars for example). Other metals could be discovered in these lands such as iron, copper, cobalt or even gold, making Afghanistan one place to be for all metal industries.

For now, nothing has been settled and it will take some time to develop the whole needed infrastructure needed. It is even more difficult knowing the risks of encountering the Taliban in the region. Some more competition may be driven by China or India which are also starting to develop technological industries all over the world (China develops a lot of electrical cars). The worst is that the deposits are situated in an area of the country where the battles between Taliban and US Army are not over.

Another risk is that Hamid Karzai, the young president of Afghanistan could face difficulties to resist the ease of corruption. And also, is the government able to start high level mining activities without destroying the ecosystem of the region.

But, if Afghanistan manage to overpass the challenge, the entire world could find his benefit with the driving down of batteries prices and so for cameras, phones, laptops or maybe also electric cars, making them more accessible… Can’t you see an opportunity of doing great operations in new development areas? SBE International is wisely looking at it.

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2010-06/14/massive-lithium-deposit-found-in-afghanistan

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