Vast Mineral Deposits Found in Afghanistan

Some friendly party should perhaps take the Afghans aside and give them the type of advice my forefathers in Appalachia could have used back in the day. Otherwise, they are liable to find themselves in the same boat as our beleaguered region: experiencing a huge economic boom while allowing big money fat cats in from the outside to steal all of our natural resources for pennies on the dollar, working them like slaves in the process and sending all the profits far away. Then, in 40 or 50 years, they pull out - having successfully raped the land for all she's worth, and poisoned the air and water in the process - and abandon you to wallow in poverty.

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NYT: Vast mineral deposits found in Afghanistan - The New York Times- msnbc.com: "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 Blackberries..."