$1 Trillion In Minerals Found In Afghanistan

clustro writes "American geologists working with the Pentagon have discovered deposits of iron, copper, cobalt, gold, and lithium of incredible bounty, amounting to nearly $1 trillion. In fact, the lithium deposits are so vast, an internal Pentagon memo has stated that Afghanistan could become the 'Saudi Arabia of lithium.' The wealth of the deposits completely flattens the current GDP of Afghanistan, estimated at about $12 billion. Mining would completely transform the economy of Afghanistan, which presently is propped up by the opium trade and foreign aid. However, it could take decades for extraction to reach its full potential due to the war, the lack of heavy industry in the country, and a corrupt national government."

Comments

Re:I am afraid I have to agree

[Phrogman]

It seems to me that the US is being ruled in effect by the power and influence of some of the major corporations. They are certainly pocketing the tax dollars paid by the citizens of the US, ostensibly for the "War on Terror" (the replacement for the "War on Drugs" which was very successful in generating corporate income I am sure). The corporations get richer, they sponsor the politicians that will continue to let them get rich at the expense of the American people, and its seemingly a juggernaut that can't be stopped. Obama seemed to be the common people's response to their awareness of this, and there has been a tremendous wellspring of support for him early on, but with the massive bailouts to banks and corporations who should rightly have been thrown in jail, not bailed out (and thus rewarded for willful stupidity and greed), I think that support is lessening. If they have found a trillion dollars worth of resources though, I expect the US will find a sudden need to remain longer - at least until the corporations have sucked Afghanistan dry and spit out the withered corpse. The Afghan people won't benefit en route though, just the Swiss bankaccounts of those Afghani warlords who are bribed to let the companies in to rape the countryside. I wouldn't all all be surprised that this "discovery" was a decade old and is the main reason the US is in Afghanistan now. Sadly, that would make my own country of Canada just as complicit.