A TRILLION REASONS TO LIKE THE TALIBAN

With the its takeover of Afghanistan, the Taliban took control of a vast trove of metals and minerals vital to clean energy development.

The mountainous, war-torn Middle Eastern country sits atop rare earths and other strategic metals that U.S. experts valued at more than $1 trillion and are expected to grow more valuable as major economies shift to renewable energy and electrify transportation.

In a 2010 memo, the Department of Defense detailed previously unknown deposits of copper, cobalt, gold and iron large enough to transform the war-ravaged nation’s economy (Greenwire, June 14, 2010).

So extensive is the nation’s untapped mineral wealth that the Pentagon dubbed Afghanistan the “Saudi Arabia of lithium,” referring to a critical metal in electric vehicle batteries.

The U.S. Geological Survey, with help from its Afghan counterpart and the country’s Ministry of Mines, has also determined that Afghanistan could have a million tons of rare earth elements (Greenwire, Sept. 15, 2011) - link - James Marshall - link