Iran’s Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade has announced that the country has discovered its first lithium reserve in Qahavand in Hamedan province.

The reserve is believed to hold 8.4 million tons of lithium and if realized, would rank Iran behind Chile (11 million tons) and ahead of Australia (7.9 million tons) in terms of global lithium resources, according to USGS figures.

According to the ministry, a mine to exploit the resource—which took four years to discover—will be launched in the next two years.

Source: Green Car Congress