Lithium

The Nation (USA): Traveling to Logar Province reveals unmanageable violence and co-optation by foreign companies. By 2007, the US Geological Survey had undertaken the most comprehensive study of the mineral deposits below the country’s surface. An internal Pentagon memo claimed that Afghanistan could develop into the “Saudi Arabia of lithium,” referring to the mineral that is an integral component of laptop and smartphone batteries. Click here to read more (external link).