Chinese firm offers $10b investment in lithium reserves

KABUL (Pajhwok): A Chinese company has offered to invest $10 billion and also build another tunnel at the Salang Pass if it is given the contract to explore lithium reserves in Afghanistan.

The Ministry of Mines and Petroleum wrote on its Twitter page today (Thursday) that Acting Minister of Mines and Petroleum Shahabuddin Dilawar met with representative of the Chinese company in his office.

The Chinese said they wanted to invest $10 in Afghanistan’s lithium mines, which will provide jobs to 120,000 people directly and to one million people indirectly.

They also proposed that if the lithium mining contract was given to them, they would repair the Salang tunnel within seven months and build another new tunnel there.

The company will 100 percent process lithium in Afghanistan and build a power dam and the Nuristan Highway from Kunar to Laghman for the purpose.

Dilawar welcomed the Chinese company’s interest in lithium sector development in Afghanistan and said: “Lithium is very scarce in the world and all Afghans look to their mineral resources, lithium and other mines, so it is a must for the Ministry of Mines to give contracts of all mines of the country according to the mining law.”

Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world, but it sits on mineral deposits worth nearly $1 trillion.

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