China will invest in Afghanistan's 1 trillion lithium reserve: offered 81 thousand crores

China now wants to invest in the lithium reserve area of Afghanistan. For this, Taliban's Mining and Petroleum Minister Shahabuddin Dilawar has met the officials of Chinese company Gochin in Kabul.
Minister Dilawar has said that 1 lakh 20 thousand job opportunities will be created with this investment. The Chinese company has also promised the Taliban that they will fix the Salang Pass within 7 months. Along with this, another tunnel will also be made.
After coming to power in 2021, the Taliban is constantly appealing to other countries to invest in Afghanistan. However, issues of instability and human rights violations deter most countries from investing in Afghanistan.
In such a situation, China's investment will be important there. At the same time, Gochin Company has told that a hydroelectric dam will be built to process the lithium deposits. This work will start soon.
With this investment in Afghanistan, China is trying to fulfill its dream of becoming the largest lithium supplier by 2025. According to Bloomberg's report, China extracted 1 lakh 94 thousand tonnes of lithium in 2022 from Africa alone. Which will be increased to 7 lakh 5 thousand by 2025.
Lithium is also called white gold. Lithium batteries are more powerful and lighter than other batteries. Also, lithium-ion batteries last longer than lead-acid batteries. There is a growing demand in the world to ban the use of coal as a fuel. In such a situation, lithium is being seen as its alternative. The demand for electric vehicles is increasing due to climate change.
There are 10 million electric cars in the world, which are expected to grow to 140 million by the end of this decade. More electric cars will mean more demand for lithium batteries. A single electric vehicle battery also requires at least 8 kg of lithium. Seven billion lithium-ion batteries are sold worldwide each year, and this is expected to increase to 15 billion by 2027.
According to Statista report, China will be the largest manufacturer of lithium-ion batteries in the world in 2021 and during this period 79% of the world's lithium-ion batteries were made in China.