The Iranian authorities announced the discovery of a large deposit of lithium, the new ‘white gold’, which could make the Persian country one of the main producers of this mineral.

The head of exploration of the Iranian Ministry of Industry, Ebrahimali Molabeigi, announced the discovery of a deposit that contains some “8.6 million tons” of lithium in the northern province of Hamedanthe Mehr newspaper reported on Tuesday.

“The discovery of the first reservoir in Hamedan is promising,” the official said. “In today’s world, this strategic and valuable resource is of great importance in advanced technologies”he added.

Lithium is a fundamental component of electric vehicle batteries, and its consumption reached 134,000 tons in 2022, an increase of 41% over the previous year, pushed by the growing popularity of this type of vehicle in the world.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) reports that 98 million tons have been identified of lithium all over the planet, being Bolivia (21 million), Argentina (20 million) and the United States (12 million), the countries with the greatest amount of ‘white gold’.

But the global reserves, that part that can be exploited, are reduced to 26 million tons worldwideaccording to the USGS, a section in which Chile stands out with 9.3 million extractable tons.

Therefore, Iran could become one of the main producers of this mineral if the discovery of 8.6 million tons of lithium is confirmed and if all that quantity is exploitable. Iran has large oil and gas reserves – third and fourth in the world – but US sanctions prevent it from marketing its petrochemical products in a normal way.