Afghanistan's natural resources

[Andy823]

Here is a reason why so many want to "stay" in Afghanistan instead of leaving and why they are pressuring the president to stay.


http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/14/world/asia/14minerals.html

By JAMES RISEN
Published: June 13, 2010

WASHINGTON — 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.

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.

You can read more at the link.

[dipsydoodle]

1. I don't think they've actually discovered anything

that the Russian's hadn't found and surveyed years ago.

Odd that they don't list the uranium too.

[Wilms]

5. You are correct....

Before the 1978 coup, the existence of the Afghan mineral wealth was revealed publicly in a survey study financed by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). This study was called Mineral Resources of Afghanistan (1977). It was organized by a Soviet team that included nine people. The Soviet team indentified 78 commercially significant mineral deposits. The most significant deposits were natural gas, oil, copper, iron ore, and coal. This shows how Soviets were active by researching and finding significant mineral deposits that would make the Soviet economy stronger (Assifi 263).

http://www.alamo.edu/sac/honors/main/papers%2010/Azamat%20Kasymov.htm

[AtomicKitten]

2. China already has dibs on it.

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5213483,00.html

[Andy823]

3. Yep,

I found this in the article you linked to.

Criticism from the West is getting louder. They say that China is capitalizing on Afghanistan's resources while the US and its allies are fighting against the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

Conrad Schetter from Bonn University’s Center for Development and Research says the West's anger is understandable.

“The Chinese strategy is to concentrate on economic aspects and stay as far away from politics as possible, while relying on the Americans and NATO to take care of terrorism. And they don't feel they need to participate in the latter,” he says.

[dipsydoodle]

4. China's got what may be the most important factor going for them

Proximity.

From you link : China is capitalizing on Afghanistan's resources while the US and its allies are fighting against the Taliban and Al Qaeda. aka they're not mugs.

[Hippo_Tron]

6. Right, first it was about the trans-Afghan pipeline (that still hasn't been built)...

And now it's about minerals....

:eyes:

[ChrisBorg]

7. We need the pipeline for all the free oil we got from Kuwait and Iraq.

[Hippo_Tron]

8. The (still hypothetical) pipeline is a natural gas pipeline that goes to India