Afghanistan seeks bids to tap huge mineral wealth

[maddezmom]

Source: AFP

NEW DELHI — Afghanistan is to seek bids from global mining groups to extract the war-torn country's near one trillion dollars of mineral wealth, its mines minister said.

Wahidullah Shahrani said the country would organise a roadshow to promote opportunities for foreign investors on June 25 in London.

"We will invite bids for the development of our mineral deposits in the next few months," he said after a meeting with his Indian counterpart B.K. Handique in New Delhi Tuesday, according to Dow Jones Newswires.

A number of Indian companies and global miners have already shown interest in Afghanistan's deposits, the minister said.



Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5g-kL_n6q7bd7myQbFnarv8SqSDig

[dipsydoodle]

1. As far as I'm aware

the Chinese did a big copper deal with them a couple of years back.

I wondering if this announcement is what caused the "news ?" of their mineral wealth to be published a couple of days back given that their mineral deposits were known back in the '70s when the Russians did the surveys.

Looks like it's open house - I'd love to see Karzai's bank balance in a year or so.

[Merchant Marine]

2. Big difference between knowing of them and having detailed information

All I'm saying is that geologic exploration ain't as simple as most people would think. Modern remote sensing techniques can often outperform what the Russians did in the 70s, too. I know that the Lithium was a big deal because its mostly in shallow drylake beds, so its easy to extract without complex machinery.

[dipsydoodle]

3. Whose tale do you believe?

Read through this for something closer to the truth : http://nourishingobscurity.com/2010/06/16/tale-of-two-afghan-tales/

[Merchant Marine]

4. Because the USGS could never have a pissing match with DOD contracted geologists.

USGS is academia. The DOD contractors are interested in exploration and exploitation. Inter-agency cooperation is a crock of shit.

[happygoluckytoyou]

5. RELATED STORY war expected to pay for itself (oops... that was iraq)