Perhaps a stupid question, but how important is all that Afghani lithium

[Skidmore]

given the push for cars that run on battery power? Is lithium used for the batteries in hybrid cars? Perhaps that find is the equivalent of an oil gusher.

Just asking.

[tranche]

1. I think it's pretty damn significant. Electroncis and these hybrids we expect to have need it.

And we'd definitely like to assure control over it instead of ceding it to China.

[Skidmore]

2. I thought that might be the case.

It is the equivalent of a gusher.

[Robb]

3. It's tough to say.

At the moment, it's a difficult place to extract resources. There are other places to get lithium out of the ground, less expensively, at the moment. Sort of the same problems faced by the best restaurant in Mogadishu -- the food may be great, but it ain't worth it to go there to get it.

If things change for the better, regardless of who does the changing, it could be very significant.

[Skidmore]

5. Seems to me that we could risk a Peak Lithium someday too.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

6. You can recycle lithium.

[vaberella]

9. Yup, yup. n/t

[dipsydoodle]

4. It isn't

while its in the ground. Who will be the ultimeate benficiary , assuming it really exists there , remains to be seen. China has already sewn up a lot of the copper deposits and could probably out bid others on other mineral deposits too. Broadly speaking China and Bolivia have the highest known deposits.

[vaberella]

8. Do you have a laptop or cell phone?! They don't run without lithium. n/t

[dipsydoodle]

10. If you read what I said

then please elaborate on exactly how you use lithium while its still in the ground.

[vaberella]

11. But lithium will be processed into something usable.

I don't understand how it is even insignificant in the ground?

[vaberella]

7. If my laptop has no lithium, he dies; and I follow soon after. n/t

[Brother Buzz]

12. It may be of secondary interest if the world makes nice and plays Evo Morales' game

Small, impoverished Bolivia, in fact, is the Saudi Arabia of lithium. It’s home to 73 million metric tons of lithium carbonate, more than half the world’s supply. The largest single deposit is the Salar de Uyuni, a vast, 4,085-square-mile (6,575-sq-km) salt desert in the southern Potosi region.

President Evo Morales, Bolivia’s first indigenous head of state, prides himself on state control over natural resources he nationalized the country’s (massive natural gas reserves in 2006). If the past is any indication, electric carmakers should look to the Andes with sober eyes. "This is a unique opportunity for us," says Bolivian Mining Minister Luis Alberto Echazu. "The days of U.S. car companies buying cheap raw materials to sell expensive cars are over." Indeed, Bolivia’s lithium abundance could put car manufacturers in the position of replacing one energy-rich Latin American U.S. critic — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez — with another.

Many foreign carmakers have already found that out. Auto executives estimate the demand for lithium could exceed supply in a decade. As a result, representatives from companies like Mitsubishi and Toyota have approached the Morales government to get in on the ground floor of Bolivia’s lithium development. They’ve been routinely turned away. "All they wanted to do was carry away the raw lithium carbonate," says Echazu, “and that’s not what we’re after."

What Bolivia is after is a largely, if not purely, state-run lithium industry from mining to industrialization, which might even include actual manufacturing of the coveted lithium-ion batteries. Morales recently announced a $5.7 million pilot plant to process raw lithium carbonate, now under construction on the edge of the Salar, which hopes to produce its first 40 metric tons of the material by the end of this year.

[backscatter712]

13. Lithium's not as rare as other metals, but given the skyrocketing demand, I'd say it's important.

I'm concerned that now, Afghanistan's gonna be stuck with the resource curse, just like Nigeria.

[Enrique]

14. it's hype

the supplemental is being debated in Congress, the public doesn't know why we're in Afgahnistan, the Pentagon suddenly finds all these riches so the public will want to stay. Joe Sixpack thinks he's going to get a cut.