The Ministry of Mines and Petroleum has started its assessments in certain parts of the country to identify lithium deposits, an official said on Tuesday. 

The results of the assessments will show in which provinces lithium deposits are located and how much lithium they have, said Abdul Qadeer Mutfi, a spokesman for the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum.

He said the survey will help the ministry to provide the ground for possible investment in lithium mining. 

“Ministry of Mines and Petroleum is working in this regard to find out the chain of values (of lithium) in all parts of the country and find out in which areas lithium exists, how we can extract them and to what extent we can invest,” Mutfi said.

Lithium is considered as one of the most important electricity savers and is mostly being used in modern technologies such in smart mobile phones’ batteries, electric cars, computers and drones. 

Before this, the United States’ Geological Survey after its assessment on Afghanistan’s mines in a report had said that lithium mines possibly exist in Ghazni, Herat and Nimroz provinces. 

“The United States’ Geological Survey has estimated that Afghanistan has rich resources of lithium and even had compared Afghanistan with Saudi Arabia. It means as Saudi Arabia is the biggest fuel producer in the world, Afghanistan also one day can be the biggest lithium producer in the world,” said Sayed Zaman Hashemi, an expert. 

In the last year, the Afghan government has accelerated efforts in grabbing the attention of foreign investors towards investing in Afghanistan’s mining sector and meanwhile reports say that the government is trying to convince the US to invest in Afghanistan’s lithium mines. But still, it is not known whether the Americans are interested in such investment or not.