Surprise, Surprise – Afghanistan Is A Gold Mine

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The United States has discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan, far beyond any previously known reserves and enough to fundamentally alter the Afghan economy and perhaps the Afghan war itself, according to senior American government officials.

The previously unknown deposits — including huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals like lithium — are so big and include so many minerals that are essential to modern industry that Afghanistan could eventually be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world, the United States officials believe.

THE NEW YORK TIMES REPORTS

An internal Pentagon memo, for example, states that Afghanistan could become the “Saudi Arabia of lithium,” a key raw material in the manufacture of batteries for laptops and BlackBerrys.

The vast scale of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth was discovered by a small team of Pentagon officials and American geologists. The Afghan government and President Hamid Karzai were recently briefed, American officials said.

While it could take many years to develop a mining industry, the potential is so great that officials and executives in the industry believe it could attract heavy investment even before mines are profitable, providing the possibility of jobs that could distract from generations of war.

“There is stunning potential here,” Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of the United States Central Command, said in an interview on Saturday. “There are a lot of ifs, of course, but I think potentially it is hugely significant.”

The value of the newly discovered mineral deposits dwarfs the size of Afghanistan’s existing war-bedraggled economy, which is based largely on opium production and narcotics trafficking as well as aid from the United States and other industrialized countries. Afghanistan’s gross domestic product is only about $12 billion.

“This will become the backbone of the Afghan economy,” said Jalil Jumriany, an adviser to the Afghan minister of mines.

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Holte Ender

Holte Ender will always try to see your point of view, but sometimes it is hard to stick his head that far up his @$$.
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13 years ago

Just curious, are they paying us to act as security? I kind of resent America being the mall cop when other countries stand to rake in the money and we are footing the bill while our guys go home in body bags.

Jess
Reply to  Mother Hen
13 years ago

MH, all the sniffing around different sites on this story, today, I haven’t seen who is paying for what. I imagine we are paying for it, since they keep asking and getting more money for our overseas adventure from congress.

osori
Reply to  Jess
13 years ago

The AZ group may have submitted a high bid that included security to keep Mexicans out.

Jess
Reply to  osori
13 years ago

🙂 it’s entirely possible as crazy as this is. The Chinese are doing the same thing in Peru going as far as relocating a whole town to get the copper in a mountainous region there, according to a story I saw from McLatchy. Same article says the site was discovered in 74 by a joint Soviet-Afghani team. So my saying 80s in another reply was incorrect after getting hold of this article. I just wonder why are we just now getting this? Is it to distract us all from the oil spill or what the hell are they up to.

This is the info I was tallking about earlier with the AZ company and the whole article link.
Moreover, China must deliver the infrastructure projects that helped it snag the deal over six rivals, including Phelps Dodge Corp., which was acquired by Phoenix-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. in 2007.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2009/03/08/63452/chinas-thirst-for-copper-could.html#ixzz0qsZXcDvU

osori
Reply to  Jess
13 years ago

Los Chinos in the Congo too.

chinos

osori
Reply to  Jess
13 years ago

more chinos,linked from Naked Capitalism:

mas

Jess
13 years ago

So, I’m looking into this today. Says we are providing security for the Chinese who are developing this Aynak mine for copper. China and Afghanistan stand to make healthy profit from this and we are there doing the security. Something is so wrong with this picture. We need to just bring our troops home and let the rest of the world do their own work, of getting rid of the taliban and groups like it. Karzai is supposedly wondering if we can succeed there and may go to work with the taliban and Pakistan. WTF, then why in the hell stay there is my thinking. Here is an article from NYT. I did read over on TPM that the Russians had found this when they were there so how can it be newly found. Curiouser and curiouser isn’t it? Almost like it’s timed to pacify the less informed to want to stay there and help them get it up and running so we can leave. Not surprisingly is the help the Pentagon is giving them to help arrange and start the bidding process on mineral rights. Apparently there was a group from AZ that lost out on the bids. Ugh, more about profit over the people again probably.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/14/world/asia/14minerals.html

13 years ago

I wonder how long the “government” has known about the mineral deposits?

Jess
Reply to  Jerry Critter
13 years ago

@Jerry, according to an article I just read from NYT 2004 a group of American geologists found something. I did link the whole article below, in another comment, here is an excerpt from it. So by my best guess at least from the 80s, one group or another has known about it. We will not hear about that though, it will be a brand new discovery in our news because that is just how our news works.

“In 2004, American geologists, sent to Afghanistan as part of a broader reconstruction effort, stumbled across an intriguing series of old charts and data at the library of the Afghan Geological Survey in Kabul that hinted at major mineral deposits in the country. They soon learned that the data had been collected by Soviet mining experts during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, but cast aside when the Soviets withdrew in 1989”

13 years ago

I have to say, I am getting really depressed lately. Up is down and right is left. This could be a case study of US media ownership in itself.

Apparently this story is a planted story given with agreement to the New York Times. This is commonly known as a Zombie story, timed to prop up support for the continued Afghan war effort.

The minerals were discovered back in the Soviet invasion days. In fact, here is a link to a 2007 government geological survey with listing of minerals involved.

http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2007/3063/fs2007-3063.pdf

here is various news bloggers discussing the issue.

http://www.newshoggers.com/blog/2010/06/iraqs-mineral-riches-a-conveniently-timed-zombie-story.html

Reply to  Holte Ender
13 years ago

Amazing. I had thought it was just discovered. The news stories are making it out to be new stuff as well.

Jess
13 years ago

Uch, this just mean we will be there longer than we already are planning on being there.

13 years ago

Someone said, if Afghanistan’s thought the Russians were bad, the Americans not much better, then wait till they get a load of Corporations. I shudder…. This opens up a whole new expansion for Walmart. Mountain top Merchandising.

13 years ago

If they can make money off minerals instead of opium, it will be better for them. But now, even if we get out of Iraq, we’ll never get out of there.

13 years ago

This is bad in several ways…
For those conspirators, it will give more fuel it was all a setup.Our world image will be sunk even lower because of cynicism when we stay there.Those majority of the mineral royalties will be to pay for the debt caused by weapons past and future weapons that we have used on them.We will stay there a lot longer now because we have to “protect” the Afghans from predatory nations looking to take their minerals.Russia will now look to this neighbor with renew interest and start subversive campaigns to drive us out.

We should have gotten out. Now that chance is gone with the “Strategic Interests” wind.

Nikolai
Reply to  Krell
13 years ago

Krell, you said: “We should have got­ten out. Now that chance is gone with the “Strate­gic Inter­ests” wind.”

But there are lots of other not so well-meaning folks who feel exactly the opposite and are THRILLED we are already there with a substantial military presence. To them it’s all SO convenient… Or planned.

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