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Iran discovers world’s second largest lithium reserve

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Re: Iran discovers world’s second largest lithium reserve

#251

Post by sofixa »

lyu07282 wrote: post #243
rjzzleep wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The tensions don't exist because of its oil. They exist because of their natural resources which may or may not include oil. Look all over africa for examples. Being rich in natural resources is a bit like being a really hot girl around a bunch of abusive predatory men. They'll shower her with gifts and tell her how amazing she is until she says: "no, I don't want to sleep with you" and all hell breaks loose.

western economists unironically call it the resource curse: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_curse examples include Saudi Arabia, Norway and Alaska. Oh no wait bad examples.

Alaska doesn't count because it was part of the US, which was already a developed (for the time) economy.

Saudi Arabia, Norway and a few Gulf min-states (Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain) are the rare counterexamples that kind of prove the rule. There's a great FT article[1] about the Iraqi man who helped lead Norway's oil revolution in the proper direction, and it was really not obvious. Why Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain managed to use their resources successfully (of course to an extent a matter of debate, human rights being a big problem in most of those places) and other dictatorships failed, even in similar scenarios (same religion, royals) is a tough one to answer.

https://www.ft.com/content/99680a04-92a0-11de-b63b-00144feab...

Re: Iran discovers world’s second largest lithium reserve

#252

Post by blue_muppet »

londons_explore wrote: post #168
2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The people of Iran are currently in the process of liberating themselves. I hope they succeed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021%E2%80%932022_Iranian_prot...

Large scale protests like this are frequently externally influenced. I really wouldn't be surprised if in 50 years time when top secret documents are released to archives we don't find that these protests are being financially supported or organised by USA/Israel/the west. It wouldn't be the first time [1][2][3] [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in_r... [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Am…

That's such bullshit and it completely invalidates the real issues at hand and the agency of Iranians.

Re: Iran discovers world’s second largest lithium reserve

#253

Post by SuoDuanDao »

lyu07282 wrote: post #243
rjzzleep wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The tensions don't exist because of its oil. They exist because of their natural resources which may or may not include oil. Look all over africa for examples. Being rich in natural resources is a bit like being a really hot girl around a bunch of abusive predatory men. They'll shower her with gifts and tell her how amazing she is until she says: "no, I don't want to sleep with you" and all hell breaks loose.

western economists unironically call it the resource curse: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_curse examples include Saudi Arabia, Norway and Alaska. Oh no wait bad examples.

Saudi Arabia is hardly a desirable model, though enough money admittedly papers over a lot of human rights abuses. In the above example it's like a hot girl with severe mental health issues.

Norway's sovereign wealth fund is a strategy to escape the resource curse. It's like a hot girl with high self esteem and a handgun in her purse.

Alaska is one state in a country that has other things going for it. It's like a hot girl with a protective older brother.

Re: Iran discovers world’s second largest lithium reserve

#254

Post by sofixa »

Aardwolf wrote: post #247

Are we simply not looking hard enough in Europe, or is the European soil truly useless for competitive amounts of natural resources?

There is quite a lot of lithium in Europe already, e.g. in Serbia [1]. However lithium mining is extremely environmentally destructive, and those sorts of things usually aren't accepted by Europeans.

1 - https://mondediplo.com/2022/11/10serbia

Re: Iran discovers world’s second largest lithium reserve

#255

Post by mistermann »

user3939382 wrote: post #245

Dang their need for "democracy" just went up by a lot...

The funniest part is this is what (is constantly claimed to, thus [1] widely believed) powers this very phenomenon!

Oh how I love irony, though I suspect our geopolitical rivals don't share my sentiments.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illusory_truth_effect

Re: Iran discovers world’s second largest lithium reserve

#256

Post by SuoDuanDao »

988747 wrote: post #246
Swizec wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Also not sure how much having Lithium locked up in a heavily sanctioned country will help the big battery manufacturers To put my cynic’s hat on: Having something the super powers want sounds like a great way to stop being so sanctioned. Great negotiating leverage.

Or a great way to get yourself invaded by said superpower.

I'm sure Iran is glad to field-test its drones in the Ukrainian theatre for this reason.

Re: Iran discovers world’s second largest lithium reserve

#257

Post by lambdasquirrel »

FlyingSnake wrote: post #135

Geological survey also discovered huge Lithium reserves in India¹ recently. I wonder how much undiscovered Lithium resources we're sitting upon. 1: https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/blexplainer/the-lithium...

Anywhere where there's a bunch of endorheic basins.

Re: Iran discovers world’s second largest lithium reserve

#258

Post by sofixa »

londons_explore wrote: post #168
2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The people of Iran are currently in the process of liberating themselves. I hope they succeed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021%E2%80%932022_Iranian_prot...

Large scale protests like this are frequently externally influenced. I really wouldn't be surprised if in 50 years time when top secret documents are released to archives we don't find that these protests are being financially supported or organised by USA/Israel/the west. It wouldn't be the first time [1][2][3] [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in_r... [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Am…

> Large scale protests like this are frequently externally influenced

They are often externally helped, but considering the casus "belli" in this case was an extremely natural one (a popular reaction against a brutal abuse of power that resulted in the violent murder of a woman for not properly wearing the mandated veil), it's very doubtful the protests were started by foreign-affiliated/financed parties.

Re: Iran discovers world’s second largest lithium reserve

#259

Post by comte7092 »

glitchc wrote: post #250
rgmerk wrote: post #186

Pop quiz: name the world’s largest producer of lithium. Lithium production is important but lithium is not the next oil. It’s not going to dominate the world economy. There aren’t going to be wars fought over it. And we will ultimately extract plenty of it to build EVs.

China.

IIRC China is the worlds largest refiner, but they are not the largest producer.

The largest producers are Australia and Chile.

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