The war-torn country of Afghanistan sits atop nearly $1 trillion US in valuable minerals, senior American military officials said Monday.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai says his country's mineral resources could be worth as much as $3 trillion. (Musadeq Sadeq/Associated Press)

According to a report in the New York Times on Monday, aerial surveys of the region as far back as 2006 have suggested the presence of multiple valuable minerals including iron, copper, cobalt and gold.

After initial aerial scans were ignored for several years, a Pentagon task force and private-sector U.S. mining experts have only recently confirmed the finds, the report said.

Metals with much more contemporary uses such as niobium and lithium have also been discovered. An internal military memo refers to Afghanistan as "the Saudi Arabia of lithium," the report said.

Few details on the exact scope of the deposits have been revealed, but U.S. officials gave an estimate of roughly $1 trillion. The Afghan ministry of mines is set to reveal more details at a news conference later this week.

Lithium is a key metal used in next-generation batteries for mobile electronic devices.

After the discovery, U.S. geologists briefed American military officials, who have informed the Afghan government including President Hamid Karzai.

The news is being hailed for suggesting the potential to transform Afghanistan into one of the most important mining centres in the world.

U.S. estimates are closer to $1 trillion US, but at a May 13 event in the United States, Karzai called his country's untapped mineral deposits a "massive opportunity" that could be worth as much as $3 trillion. That would dwarf Afghanistan's domestic economy, currently worth some $12 billion US a year.

"I think it’s very, very big news for the people of Afghanistan and that we hope will bring the Afghan people together for a cause that will benefit everyone," Karzai's spokesman Waheed Omar said Monday. "This is an economic interest that will benefit all Afghans and will benefit Afghanistan in the long run."

The deposits are still believed to be years away from commercial viability, but new investment could help develop the country and drag it from poverty.

However, there are also concerns the potential commercial bonanza could encourage the Taliban to dig in even further in their attempt to regain control of the country.

The lithium deposits are particularly intriguing given the metal's key role in next-generation batteries which are becoming increasingly important. The U.S. Geological Survey has identified 23 million tons of known lithium deposits worldwide.

Of that, Bolivia and Chile sit atop nine million, and seven and a half million tons respectively.

Charles Kernot, a mining analyst with Evolution Securities Ltd. in London, said it typically takes three to five years to get a lithium mining operation up and running. Factors include how close the deposit is to power sources and other infrastructure and the size of the deposit.

And large lithium deposits may not mean an automatic windfall, given competition and the uncertainty of the market. The economic downturn of 2009 actually saw sales volumes for major lithium producers decline by between 15 and 42 per cent, while consumption in end-use products also declined.

"Bolivia wants to expand its lithium mining operations dramatically over the next few years so there is a risk of oversupply if demand from electric cars does not meet expectations," Kernot said.

With files from The Associated Press