How's this for a reason to go to war? Please tell me it isn't so!

US geologists find $1trillion of mineral reserves in Afghanistan

Afghanistan may contain vast mineral wealth that could be worth more than $1 trillion (£678bn), US geologists say.

The country generated GDP per head of just $800 in 2009, but the new-found mineral wealth could propel the country into one of the worlds most lucrative mining areas, a report in The New York Times claims.

There is stunning potential here, General David H. Petraeus, commander of the United States Central Command, said. There are a lot of 'ifs', of course, but I think potentially it is hugely significant.

Deposits in the country include iron, copper, cobalt, gold and industrial metals such as lithium, which is used in coolants, batteries for laptops and mobile phones as well as in pharmaceutical production.

Lithium batteries are being developed as a low-carbon way of powering vehicles, with Sanyo recently saying it was to start mass producing a lithium-ion battery later this year for solar cell systems and electric cars. The report claimed that Afghanistan contained so much of the metallic element that it could become the Saudi Arabia of Lithium.

The US Geological Survey began aerial surveys of Afghanistan in 2006, using data that had been collected by Soviet mining experts during the Soviet occupation in the 1980s.

The largest mineral deposits discovered are of iron and copper, as well as large gold deposits in the Pashtun areas of southern Afghanistan.

However, violence continues in the country and, with virtually no mining industry or infrastructure in place, it is likely to take decades for Afghanistan to exploit this mineral wealth to the full.

 

You would like to hope that its not a reason.......

 

Better than making money by selling heroin.

 

They found all that, but no weapons of mass destruction

 

or Osama

 

I can understand why Bin Laden is so reluctant to give up his caves now!!!!!

 

Well, if they did go to war for dollar profit I think I would have to say that was short sighted. The costs of war are almost certainly going to be greater than the percentage of any deposits that they manage to keep for themselves.....but then maybe they expected the war to be easier

 

Just like the exploding Ford Pinto all this is probably mapped out in a cost-benefit analysis which places a dollar value on human life!

 

Similar to The Congo which hasn't got the Taliban. Just need to pay off a few officials. dl

 

The slight flaw in this is if Afghanistan is rich in Lithium, then the would be a reason for Bush NOT to go to war; think about it - he's a Texan oil baron. The last thing the oil industry wants is for a load of cheap lithium to flood the market making electric/hybrid cars even cheaper.

Unless the American oil companies by the rights to mine it, that is

 

... unless they wanted to stop cheap lithium flooding the market

 

The yanks started mining in them there mountains a few years back. They used B-52's.

Why is this bad news though? That sh!tty country's got f*ck all else going for it. Good luck to them, I say. So what if a few US/European companies make some money out of it? The minerals aren't going to mine themselves now are they?

 

Surely all those minerals are as good as having all that oil in Iraq!

Les

 

You seem surprised, do you really think the US would be interested in such a dusty, godforsaken sh1thole otherwise ?

 

Lets take it all and pay off our debts

 

It's not ours to take.

 

You never thought all your soldiers coming home in bodybags was to protect 'your freedom' did you??.... you did!??

thats so sweet

 

Well said.

There should of been just 2 options for the west regards the middle east - 1. Drop a big **** off bomb on the whole lot, with everything dead leave it as a baron waste land. Or 2. Never of left our western shores to enter the middle east in the first place and just let the middle east tear itself apart cos apparently our boys have to go all the way over there to stop terrorist attacks in the UK cos these rag heads have really good throwing arms and can throw an IED all the way from their cave into London. Heres an idea, put more effort into protecting the UK borders.

 

Did you not notice that when the Iraq war was officially over, the very first items they repaired were the oil wells?

Les