Afghan Mineral Wealth May Be Greater: $3 Trillion

[sabra]

Source: ABC News/AP

Afghanistan says its untapped mineral wealth is at least $3 trillion _ triple US estimate

Afghanistan's untapped mineral wealth is worth at least $3 trillion — triple a U.S. estimate, according to the government's top mining official, who is going to Britain next week to attract investors to mine one of the world's largest iron ore deposits in the war-torn nation.

Geologists have known for decades that Afghanistan has vast deposits of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and other prized minerals, but a U.S. Department of Defense briefing this week put a startling, nearly $1 trillion price tag on the reserves. Minister of Mines Wahidullah Shahrani said Thursday that he's seen geological assessments and industry estimates that the minerals are worth at least $3 trillion.

"Afghanistan has huge untapped natural energy and mineral resources which have enormous potential for our economic development," Shahrani said. "Ensuring that this is done in the most transparent and efficient way while delivering the greatest value to the country is a priority of the government."

Critics of the war have questioned why the nation's mineral worth was being promoted at a time when violence is on the upswing and the international coalition is under rising pressure to prove that its counterinsurgency strategy is working.

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=10937861

[MineralMan]

1. Very little of which will go to Afghanis.

Surprise! Surprise!

[Robb]

2. "So, bid now and save on shipping!!" - Shahrani

[Oregone]

3. War is over then. Karzai will be trusted by ordinary Afghans to pass on the benefits

[Hosnon]

4. Hopefully this will bring prosperity to the country and, therefore, stability.

Hopefully...

[tomm2thumbs]

5,000 MegaGadzillion - it doesn't change anything in the war

if anything, it'll make it a bigger takeover target for ill-minded interests. Look how the minerals and resource based industries have made our country a better place. Just look closely.

[L0oniX]

5. Yea ...let's steal it from them ...the suckers

Let's use our military to take their resources. Let's use our sons and daughters to rip them off and maybe die over it all.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
:mad:

[Flatulo]

20. ... and it will stay in the ground for the next billion years

The Afghanis need something other than war and poppy and their asshole theocratic movement. I agree that most of the value of these minerals should go to the native population, but Western capital and brainpower will be needed to extract it.

Rant away at the evil Capitalists who will exploit this, but if the locals are savvy and srike a good deal, this could enrich them and bring them out of the stone age.

More likely, Karzai and his cronies will get most of it and the locals will continue to bay at the moon and kill each other.

[PacerLJ35]

27. Sure, and the other option is to do nothing, deny the Afghans any chance of having an economy...

...just so you can feel some sense of moral superiority while you get to drive your car, live in a city with services, and not have to worry about paramilitary thugs killing your family members for being on the wrong side.

The risk of corruption and greed is large. But letting the mineral wealth sit untouched just so we can say "ha! Big bad Amerika won't make a buck on this one!" is cheating the Afghans of any chance. Foreign investors will be necessary to get this jump-started, because I'm willing to bet there aren't many Afghans that have extensive geological or mining experience in country, not to mention they don't have any mining infrastructure or equipment to speak of.

[L0oniX]

31. You don't get it just like the war pigs.They do not want a secular society.

We are infidels to them and we always will be. The will never stop fighting us NEVER! You lack a fundamental understanding of their beliefs. It is not up to us to deny or permit them to have an economy ...who the fuck do you think we are?

[grahamhgreen]

6. It's a NEGATIVE 3T for the Afghani's. They just get more years of war and dead children.

[KansDem]

7. "to attract investors to mine one of the world's largest iron ore deposits in the war-torn nation"

Which reminds me, what ever happened to the oil fields of Iraq? Were they finally auctioned off to the highest bidder?

[sabra]

8. BP wins biggest Iraq oil contract

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/5701252/BP-wins-biggest-Iraq-oil-contract.html


BP wins biggest Iraq oil contract
The only successful foreign bid in a historic televised auction.


An oil facility in Iraq. BP has won a contract to develop the country's largest oilfield

A BP-led consortium on Tuesday won a deal to develop Iraq's largest oilfield – the only successful foreign bid in a historic televised auction.

International oil companies were put off by the Iraqi oil ministry's demands that they cut the fee they collect on every barrel extracted over 20-year contracts.

The BP-Chinese National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) deal was only secured when the consortium agreed to cut its fee per barrel from £3.99 to $2.

Exxon-Mobil had been the favourite to develop the 17.8bn barrel Rumaila oilfield, but the companies refused to accept the low fees imposed by the oil ministry.

[dipsydoodle]

10. That was June last year

BP work well with the Chinese - watch your backs.

[David__77]

9. Too bad the Soviets didn't find it in the 80s.

Maybe things would have gone differently and there would have never been a Taliban, and women could walk down the streets of Kabul unveiled.

[Tansy_Gold]

11. They did

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/14/world/asia/14minerals.html?pagewanted=2

[David__77]

13. Interesting...

I certainly don't disagree with the Soviet withdrawal per se, but they should have helped the Afghan government to follow up on this. Maybe their would have been more support for national reconciliation by the West instead of installing a theocratic state.

[DavidDvorkin]

14. The Soviets didn't install the theocratic state

They left a secular state behind, but without their troops there, it was overrun and destroyed by the Taliban.

[David__77]

16. No, I didn't mean that...

I mean that maybe if there was wealth in Afghanistan the US and the West would have stopped covertly supporting the fundamentalists who were trying to overthrow the Afghan government. I'm referring to the period 1989-1992, post-occupation but pre-fall of the secular state.

[DavidDvorkin]

22. Ah, right

That's probably true.

[mbperrin]

12. Geologists have known for decades that Afghanistan has vast deposits

Oopsie - a little truth slipped in there.

[AlbertCat]

15. Oopsie - a little truth slipped in there.

Yes...just a cheer.... and OLD cheer... to keep us there.

When it came out last week, too many people pointed out that this was old news. So, you'll notice, they've fluffed it up! It's EVEN MORE!

Afghanistan! Now with 30% more minerals! New and Improved!

[aquart]

17. And emeralds. Have you seen their emeralds?

Gorgeous.

[Enrique]

18. i hear the streets are lined with cobalt in Afghanistan n/t

[Flatulo]

19. ... and without Western investment and development it will stay

in the ground for the next billion years.

The Afghanis need something other than war and poppy and their asshole theocratic movement. I agree that most of the value of these minerals should go to the native population, but Western capital and brainpower will be needed to extract it.

Rant away at the evil Capitalists who will exploit this, but if the locals are savvy and srike a good deal, this could enrich them and bring them out of the stone age.

[dipsydoodle]

24. Are you including China in with the west ?

They've already done a deal on the copper.

[Flatulo]

30. Yeah, the Chinese are buying up resource rights all over the globe.

So far, at least, they've been doing it without invading anyone.

They seem to have a long term plan to dominate the global economy, and it looks like they're doing pretty well with it.

[SoCalDem]

21. Why stop there? Why not forty-leven Brazillion?

The Afghan people want to be left ALONE..they do not want "furriners" pokin' around in their mountains...They know from experience, that promises of fortune are not truthful, and their leaders are so corrupt, they know there will be nothing for "the people"..

[dflprincess]

23. Now that we know the real reason for the war

will the administration finally drop the the "terra-terra-terra" crap?

[Crowman1979]

25. This reminds me of the New World "Cities of Gold" myth during the 1500's.

It's the same thing, massive amounts of debt and bloodshed all for the sake making the fortune of a few and pleasing the sky god.

[fascisthunter]

26. raping and pillaging

whether it be oil or minerals

[PacerLJ35]

28. So if we don't get this mining industry going for them...what other options do you suggest?

[fascisthunter]

33. your premise is garbage... we'll get it going for companies to pillage Afghanis resources

and you know it

[marasinghe]

29. if the estimates are accurate, this is a preview of afghanistan's fate ....

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/11/09-2
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/10/30-0

".... The deadliest war since Adolf Hitler marched across Europe is starting again -- and you are almost certainly carrying a blood-soaked chunk of the slaughter in your pocket. When we glance at the holocaust in Congo, with 5.4 million dead, the clichés of Africa reporting tumble out: this is a "tribal conflict" in "the Heart of Darkness". It isn't. The United Nations investigation found it was a war led by "armies of business" to seize the metals that make our 21st-century society zing and bling. The war in Congo is a war about you ....

.... official story is that after the Rwandan genocide, the Hutu mass murderers fled across the border into Congo. The Rwandan government chased after them. But it's a lie. How do we know? The Rwandan government didn't go to where the Hutu genocidaires were, at least not at first. They went to where Congo's natural resources were -- and began to pillage them. They even told their troops to work with any Hutus they came across. Congo is the richest country in the world for gold, diamonds, coltan, cassiterite, and more. Everybody wanted a slice -- so six other countries invaded.

These resources were not being stolen to for use in Africa. They were seized so they could be sold on to us. The more we bought, the more the invaders stole -- and slaughtered. The rise of mobile phones caused a surge in deaths, because the coltan they contain is found primarily in Congo. The UN named the international corporations it believed were involved: Anglo-America, Standard Chartered Bank, De Beers and more than 100 others. (They all deny the charges.) But instead of stopping these corporations, our governments demanded that the UN stop criticising them ...."

visited the DR congo, last november. while a 20 year civil war rages in this pathetic, country - the size of, & richer in minerals than the entirety of, western europe - the large hotels in kinshasa are stuffed full of local politicians, army types, and, business people: from the usa, canada, many of the americas, europe, arabia, asia (mainly chinese, indians & japanese; but plenty of others) australia & the pacific, and, ironically, from many african countries as well, including locals. hotels & restaurants flourish, with constant commercial activity.

meanwhile, ragged, shoeless, under-nourished, war-damaged congolese hang around - working in soul-destroying labor & agricultural jobs, vending pathetic baskets of home-cooked food, or cheap curios; or, waiting aimlessly for some relief to fall to their lot. many of the military, cops & govt. employees are obese, obscenely wealthy, arrogant s.o.b.'s - matched in these qualities only by the local & foreign business folk.

if human history is any indication, as congo today - so goes afghanistan tomorrow.

[superconnected]

32. Expect propaganda daily up to the point the president asks congress for funds to continue the

Afghanistan war - with the promise that they'll finally get on their feet since they have the funds to support themselves and we'll recoop some of the funds from the mineral mines to pay off our expenses for being there. But Don't worry - Obama will tell us it will take years before we see money. He's not going to make it like we get money right there. This of course will also help prolong the Afghanistan war during his tenure.

I'm sure the defense contractors here are estatic!