A team of Pentagon officials and American geologists discovered the vast scale of Afghanistan’s mineral reserves which is likely to generate nearly USD1 trillion for the economy. An internal memo from the Pentagon sees Afghanistan as the “Saudi Arabia of lithium”, a key raw material for batteries of laptops and BlackBerrys. However, veteran Afghans claimed that the “discovery” was hardly new as similar findings from Russia, World Bank and the U.N. also surfaced in the 1970s.
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About the author
Chiden Balmes
Chiden, a correspondent based in Seoul, focuses on computer-assisted reporting to provide international development professionals with practical business and career information. He also contributes to the Development Newswire and the Global Development Briefing, two of the world's highest-circulation development publications.
