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US "Discovers" Nearly $1 Trillion In Mineral Deposits In Afghanistan
And there are those who wonder why the US has spent countless dollars and thousands of dead soldiers protecting a few desolate mountain passes in Afghanistan. And no, it turns out it is not just the opium trade. The NYT reports that "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 article continues, "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." Ah yes - "previously unknown." Yet the punchline of the piece : "The vast scale of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth was discovered by a small team of Pentagon officials and American geologists." Because $1 trillion worth of minerals just lie there waiting to be discovered almost 10 years after the initial incursion. Next thing you know FCX already had an entire mining infrastructure in place just in case a contingency like this miraculously occurred. In the meantime, look for gold prices to plunge as the newly uncovered gold deposits are rumored to be "large" enough to once again refill Fort Knox and to push the supply curve three miles to the right.
More on this truly "stunning" discovery:
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.
he 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.
The vast scale of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth was discovered by a small team of Pentagon officials and American geologists. The Afghan government and President Hamid Karzai were recently briefed, American officials said.
While it could take many years to develop a mining industry, the potential is so great that officials and executives in the industry believe it could attract heavy investment even before mines are profitable, providing the possibility of jobs that could distract from generations of war.
The value of the newly discovered mineral deposits dwarfs the size of Afghanistan’s existing war-bedraggled economy, which is based largely on opium production and narcotics trafficking as well as aid from the United States and other industrialized countries. Afghanistan’s gross domestic product is only about $12 billion.
“This will become the backbone of the Afghan economy,” said Jalil Jumriany, an adviser to the Afghan minister of mines.
Is it time for "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man: Part 2, the 21st Century paradigm"? Yet presumably not all is as expected: "Yet the American officials also recognize that the mineral discoveries will almost certainly have a double-edged impact. Instead of bringing peace, the newfound mineral wealth could lead the Taliban to battle even more fiercely to regain control of the country."
Which is why it will be best to have the US military not only stay in Afghanistan indefinitely but to get a million man reinforcement surge. After all now that it is finally becoming clear that the most recent US state is located somewhere in the middle of Asia, things are about to get a whole lot more interesting.
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The four round blast lets them know you are serious in the Ghetto and that you have at least two shots left. Load up on the Nato rounds, Timmy!
After four identical posts, maybe you better change your name.
Just Fix It Timmy, none of this again stuff
one more time please, Tommy
My, what a co-inky-dink -- "The American-led offensive in Marja in southern Afghanistan has achieved only limited gains."
And now we find this trove! Imagine that!
i just hope they don't find any of this stuff in my neighborhood, or i would be a terrorist too
Meanwhile an armed robbery of a bank in Baghdad went down this weekend. Body count about 15 or so. Bank vaults had gold in them we are told.
I believe that is called a "grab sample" in the business...
Imagine a central bank that has gold in the vaults. How quaint. Obviously, this wasn't a member bank.
The Afgans have no tradition of mining was the BS that amused me. Yeah they are so dumb they don't know gold laying on the ground...
Deleted.
I smell Rahm Emanuel. Someone prepare the smelling salts, I might pass out.
I smell Rahm Emanuel...
In the spirit of God Bless You and Gesundheit, I propose we start saying "Rahm Emanuel" whenever someone farts.
This will fund the first 10 years of the stated health care bill costs!
Or 1% of the funded and unfunded US debt.
At what price are they valuing these "proven reserves"?
The same price from a drug bust for the street value of cocaine or marijuana.
yeah, always wanted to know the name of that street.
Pennsylvania Avenue
Maybe they can plan strategic battles with bombing missions around the mining site. Blast the ore into manageable size while clearing the enemy out. Then the Afgani's could move in heavy equipment to haul the newly mined ore to the mill.
Yeah! Nukes make ore all melty...if we have any left after Gulf of Mexico ops....
It presently costs 400 dollars a gallon to get gasoline into afghanistan. But I'm sure theres a Chinese company named Wang Deer who makes solar powered mining equipment.
Haven't you heard they can run all the equipment on water, as long as it comes from the Gulf of Mexico.
Which explains the new reliance on mules...
American Special Forces troops used pack animals to carry equipment during their collaboration with members of the Northern Alliance, Operation Enduring Freedom, Afghanistan, 12 Nov 2001.
Skillfully maintaining the right balance of cultural awareness, political ties, and military incentives, the SOG team found ways to help the Northern Alliance leaders defeat the Taliban without stirring up resentment of American involvement. As the Americans proved themselves on horseback, in battle, and in the shared privations of life on the Afghan hardscape, they became cherished partners who earned the affection of their Afghan hosts and fellow warriors.
http://www.olive-drab.com/od_army-horses-mules_afghanistan.php
This is sensationally good news. The people of Afghanistan deserve a decent future. It is further proof of my theory that the universe is stable, ordered, benevolent and expansive. Resources are abundant if we know where to look. Scarcity is a mindset.
Prayers for all the soldiers serving in ISAF.
Pipe, please! Long live the benevolent Universe!
Ya. The universe is expansive alright. It just has to cut you down to size to make room to grow.
There is space for all of us on G-d's good earth. Everyone has their place.
did you mean GS's good earth?
Proof?
I would say it is rather proof that this is the type of story people like you would like to hear, thus impairing your ability to apply much-needed skepticism to potential government propaganda.
Very similar to all the 'economic recovery' cheerleading the media has been pumping the past couple of years...people want to hear it, so they tune out any evidence to the contrary.
OR- this is a pseudo LIE?? Maybe the reserves exist, but will be quite costly to mine not withstanding the instability. I think one would should consider this to be a ploy to flush out more physical sellers before the giant collapse of the world's shit tornado economies.
I wonder whether this new "discovery" is in any way related to this?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/defence/7825581/Afgh...
Obama and Cameron were chatting on the phone over the weekend. Just saying...
Holy cow, that's enough to bailout WallStreet!
"A Pentagon is a trillion-a-year financial hole with a liar standing in front of it" (begging pardon Mr. Clemens)
Funny, it was the Enron-Conoco energy project escapade, backed by the Clinton/Brown DLC, that led to the threat to "carpet bomb" the heretofore uninteresting Taliban...and 9/11 in direct response to US threats.
Interesting how it's always the oil and gold, or close commodity relatives thereof, that get the rich and powerful both a) rich and powerful and b) tons of karmic blowback.
Oh, and get the less rich and powerful killed, maimed, tortured, and destitute.
Now back to our regularly scheduled corporate rape in the USA.....
We already spent more than that on these stupid wars. http://costofwar.com/ Between Iraq's oil and Afghanistan's iron ore, we should be completely bankrupt in 2 years.
I hope the Feds don't find out about the loose change in my sofa cushions. They might hit my house with a million dollar cruise missile.
I installed the communications systems for a gold mine near Kubaka, Magadan Province on the Kolyma River back in the 1990's, after the collapse of the USSR. Cost? $1 billion to build the mine. Gold was locally smelted into 3,000 kilo ingots and flown out using Mi-8's, since that was the only way it wouldn't be looted. This was in peaceful Siberia.
Afghani Gold. My only question is should I buy in the morning, or wait a day or two?
finders keepers.
I am shocked at James Risen. I thought he was a better journalist than this. This is pure propaganda. This amateur release is meant to either appease 1) Karzai, or 2) the gullible American public. There is no resource identifiable. The proclamed resource is more than 3x the combined metrics of the 3 largest mining companies in the world. There will not be one mine developed in Afghanistan in the next 25 years.
Right... we're going to believe you and believe a general is making up something that could be verifiably proven to be false or a lie, to appease a politician.... another idiotic post.
Ummm . . . like all the generals who testified to Saddam's WMDs? Yeah, generals never make stuff up to appease a politician . . . (sigh)
Right... we're going to believe you and believe a general is making up something that could be verifiably proven to be false or a lie, to appease a politician.... another idiotic post.
I've proven to my satisfaction this is bullshit just based on the metrics I've outlined. Took me 5 minutes. Karzai, or those he wants to believe this will be swayed by this crap. Indeed, its going viral on every news service as we speak. If I ran a pink sheet mining company and issued a bogus news release such as this, the SEC would file charges against me.
But you have a Waive your Code of Ethics Waiver?
No, but I am heavily involved in owning farmland in Afghanistan. Our crop is very environmentally friendly and I count a former vice president of the USA as a valued shareholder and his son as a valued customer. We don't need mining equipment ripping up our beautiful land. Our production is carbon neutral.
come for the opium stay for the lithium.
lol
LOL excellent lizzy
You know- are there any real journalists that follow this ZH? The story that is just there, waiting to be written is this: do you remember- maybe three months into when we first hit Iraq-in 2003- there was a MSM story about several large long-haul trucks being stopped on the border of- I think, Turkey- and they were essentially FULL of Gold Bullion? That was a major story in 2003 - and the US confiscated all the gold. Here is the question, does anyone really have the Jason Bourne skills to actually track down what happend to like five tractor trailers full of Iraqi gold bullion? Story is just sitting there, waiting to be written - start asking questions, many straightforward answers, I am sure. I already got Ed Norton penciled in for the movie version.
US soldiers in Iraq have seized a truck loaded with what was believed to be 2,000 gold bars worth as much as $500m.The gold was discovered at a routine search at a checkpoint near the Syrian border, the US military said.
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Sky-News-Archive/Article/20080641091784
effing awesome! I just knew Halliburton would find a way to get that pipeline finished, one way or another.
Oh and HCSKnight: Please, do us all a favour and read a book or two. And not anything by Tom Clancy this time.
Regards
Right.... idiot.
repost. My bad. I heard me the first time.
NYT piece: “The big question is, can this be developed in a responsible way, in a way that is environmentally and socially responsible?” Mr. Brinkley said. “No one knows how this will work.”
Please, this is the stupidist thing I've ever heard. It comes off sounding like mining and the economic impact, and how to structure a political/economic/legal system for a region in which the main economic driver is mining, has never been done before.
It's well withing the capabilites, experience and knowledge of mankind. Make a company whose shares are distributed evenly to every Afghan "head of household" and tell the Taliban or any other group if they go in and try to F with the democratic laws or economic-capital structure [one which creates "Bill of Rights" protections FOR the Afghan people] THEN we will send in our military and kill them. Yea, it's kind of a benevolent Mafia methodology.... but if its purpose is noble and right....
Seriously, this ISNT complicated. It isnt easy, it is hard to do. But it is NOT outside the capabilites of the US or the world.
As evidenced by the last 8 years, yes, it is outside the capabilities of the US. Just concentrate on winning the war before trying to develop a fictitious trillion dollar mineral resource. Ha ha. God, I'm sure you work for the U.S. gov't.
"Yea, it's kind of a benevolent Mafia methodology.... but if its purpose is noble and right...."
So its the old 'end justifies the means', meme? Right...idiot. How's that workin' out for ya?
The ends do justify the means.
But most people prefer the ends in which they remain non-murderers.
Not surprising, actually. A big mineral deposit.
But total lack of infrastructure.
Remember folks, dollars are free for us; we can conjure them. Real shit, not so much.
If these deposits are real, then we just HAPPEN to be sitting atop the world's largest untapped oil reserves as WELL as its largest untapped mineral reserves. What a fucking stroke of luck!
"The Pentagon business development task force"
did anyone else know about this? Why wasn't I notified? I want my money back...
I wonder if the CIA will get out of the heroin business now or just add minerals to their business plan
I echo the sentiment here : Finding $1T minerals is one thing, getting it out of the ground is another. The ROI will be poor.
As for using this new wealth to pay the bills in the US? Well, remember, it's all about servicing the interest. Nobody ever expects (or wants) you to pay down the principal.
All the pentagon asshats did is trip over the Russian's 30-year old exploration work and let rham attach a headline-grabbing dollar value to the find....http://www.bgs.ac.uk/AfghanMinerals/mininfo.htm
Now you can make your Tin-foil hats out of Gold.
Really? Do you think they would work better than regular tin-foil? 'Cause mine doesn't work too well at all. Damn, those black helicopters are back again...
Maybe you are just not putting it on right! See these instructions...
Well the game plan here is 50+ years old. Confessions is just such a marvelous example of how a single story well explained by an insider communicates the truth and nullifies years of mis/disinformation. Game plan as in: We get to use take the resources as a war prize for liberation and cost of bombing, American corporations get to bid up expensive infrastructure projects in Afghanistan as reparations for lost McDonalds/Taco Bell profits because of Taliban , and we provide sweatjobs to the locals who don't have the skills to work for Apple (because of Taliban). Of course, 20 million people in Afghanistan don't have access to clean drinking water - the source of life - but don't count on that changing anytime soon. The money for that is just not there. This is inhumanity.
Confessions Part #1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTbdnNgqfs8 Index times included:Everyone shut up.
Anyone remember BreX at all? Doesn't it all look FANTASTIC!!!
Trading rule #1: Sell all your shares immediately if the geologist "falls" out of the helicopter.
The old sell on news, buy on rumour routine
What is it about this place that attracts the finest shit digger uppers on the planet?
DOW chart warns of a rally :
http://stockmarket618.wordpress.com
http://www.zerohedge.com/forum/latest-market-outlook-1
The piece of news is that if you dont have resources, the US cannot provide democracy to you.
Another time bomb ticking as another economy of extraction is installed. What is going to happen when the mining is over?
Who cares? The US got the ore, that was the target.
Great! Lets sell the occupation rights to some greater fool country and get the hell out of there.
Let's everyone take huge, leveraged, speculative longs on resource currencies such as the Canadian dollar, the Aussie dollar, and, yes, the Afghan afghani.
My prediction: In 2014, the filthy rich Afghani National Team will get its ass handed to it in the World Cup by Germany. They will all lose their heads.
"I am shocked at James Risen. I thought he was a better journalist than this. This is pure propaganda." - Goldman Sux
if in NY they are borrowing from the pension funds to pay their share to the pension funds they are running out of options....what's next - i will deduct your monthly pension from what you already owe me??? then what barter trade???
with all due respect to Risen or whoever if you are getting a salary somewhere you are just a hired gun as simple as that.
yeah all is well --- move along nothing to see....
Sold my GLD and SLV positions pre-market for a precaution. Will see how the market reacts to this news today.
Only a Trillion?
We need at least 12 Trillion.
Now I understand why Barack Warbama said in 2008 that his priority wouldn't be Iraq, but Afghanistan...
And now I understand what all that troops are doing in that desert mountains for long 9 years...
By the way, where's Osama Bin Laden? I heard of someone who saw him in a nudist beach here in Brasil...
Well, 1 trillion in minerals is much more worth than the World Trade Center... And the WTC was insured...
I really don't believe that this is the reason the US went into afghanistan. However, I believe it is being used to placate the decision by saying,
"Look, you see Afghanistan has material resources. The country will be able to make it on its own and will be able to contribute to our wonderful world union of capitalism / democracy."
Just a false sense of hope that this will lead to better things and why the US should send more troops or keep the troops there for a long time.
Kinda like Iraq's oil. By the way, wasn't China getting some major contracts over there? Huh, could it be that americans are fighting for china's right to get Iraq oil contracts? Lets see, how many american dollars / bonds does china have?
The US went in for multiple reasons:
Place troops and massive airbases near China and Iran for future conflicts
Block Russia from reentering Afghanistan and reestablishing it's long term relationship with the Tajik and Uzbek minorities
Pacify the country so oil and gas pipelines from the Caspian could be built and protected
Exploit the vast untapped mineral wealth of the country. Unmentioned are the large uranimum deposits. The US is allowing China to build a copper mine and bid on other deposits, but with US troops providing protection, the US calls the shots. No Western company would take the risk until the country is pacified
The US has declared war on the majority Pastun population. This is a failed policy since the Pastun have beaten the Tajiks and Usbek minorities time and time again. As usual the US backs the weak hand. Interestingly the US was at war with the Uzbeks and Tajiks in the 60's, 70's and 80's.
The goal is to extract the wealth out of Afghanistan.
It is not about the country making it on its own. It is all about how this country can participate to extract its wealth to an exterior.
Think like this: they will get 10pc of the deal, others will get the remaining 90pc.
Of course, once it is dried up, Afghanistan will be in a big mess.
Bird in hand worth a trillion in the bush.
A few hundred Billion dollars worth of Gold and Minerals (the actual amount they'll be able to "mine" out) won't stop any US debts fears. It's pittance compared to what the US owes.
And just for the record this is Afghanistan's mineral wealth and should be used for the Afghans as they see fit, on their terms. No doubt someone will tell me that the US discovered it, whilst waging war to capture a terrorist no less, so it must therefore belong to them. International Law goes out of the window when greed and lust take over.
if this story is true, everyone should begin to understand now why this part of the world has been fought after for millenia. it's all about the bounty.
Time for some regime change and then nation building right here.
Breaking News! Huge pile of bullshit discovered under Pentagon. Could beat current world supply.
It has been well known for 70 years or more that there are large mineral deposits in Afghanistan. that is the problem. They are in BF Afghanistan and have little value there as they cannot be fed to sheep and goats. Getting mining equipment in there, developing a mine, getting the resource out? It will take some of Berry Sombrero's magic skills.
Pretty good write up on the history of the surveys and logistics difficulties.
http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/06/14/minerals_in_afghanistan_mais_oui
Or this from Popular Science http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-06/us-geologists-uncover-staggering-1-trillion-cache-unmined-mineral-resources-afghanistan
Or the USGS report from 2007 http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2007/3063/
Can't everyone smell "pure propaganda"? This "oh so convenient" story serves several obvious purposes, and many less obvious ones too.
For example, this is an obvious scam concocted by the FederalReserve and other international gangster central banksters to attempt to hold down the price of gold --- to make their worthless green and brown toilet-paper fiat fake fraudulant counterfeit unconstitutional non-currency appear viable (to fools == the majority) for a little while longer.
This is an obvious setup against RonPaul or similar candidates too. When they say, "We should get our military out of other countries", the current establishment composed of corporate-financed neo-con-jobs and libo-con-jobs will say "These freedom candidates want to STEAL one-trillion dollars from your pockets, americans". How obvious (and craven) can you get?
I have a list of 10 obvious points, but they're too obvious to waste more space here. You all get the picture.
As gold goes, is believed to be merely 2.5% of the trillion.
But here is a nice map of the resources and the way are distributed:
http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2010/06/14/world/asia/14minerals-graphic.html?ref=asia
Hey, I was there first.
We worked out that Afghanistan had $5 trillion of aggregate, ripe for crushing into road-base material and concrete ballast. Supplies worldwide demand for a generation. All you gotta do is start blasting. (Perhaps Halliburton could sign up the roadside bombers and scale up their operations).
-apologies, bad taste-
Actually, that's quite good taste --- kill two birds with one stone (get rid of the bombs without injury and get some valuable rocks).
Besides, it makes enough sense to work.
I love it when you wax metallurgical