The Pentagon’s Afghan Mineral Hype

The Pentagon’s Afghan Mineral Hype
By James Ridgeway
June 14, 2010


This morning’s New York Times includes a story headlined, ”US Identifies Vast Riches of Minerals in Afghanistan.’’ In fact the country’s mineral wealth has been known for centuries. Records of it date back to the time of Marco Polo. Mineral stories were mapped by the Soviets during their occupation of the country, and more recently by other mining experts. While it’s possible that the team of Pentagon officials and American geologists credited with the “discovery” may have added some detail to existing knowledge on the subject, it’s hardly the revelation their reports–and the article–suggest.

So could this “revelation” in fact be an Obama administration PR campaign to buttress U.S. involvement in the war in Afghanistan? For years, we were told of Afghanistan’s potential valuable oil prospects. When oil faded from the picture there was no economic reason to be there. The place wasn’t like Iraq, where the international oil companies got their hands on a huge oil reserve. But now, with the Times apparently swallowing the Pentagon’s bait, we’ve suddenly got a new reason to fight: Getting our hands on a lucrative mining colony.

Running counter to the claims of a huge discovery is an existing undated report called Minerals in Afghanistan, prepared by the Afghan minining ministry jointly with the British Geological Survey and easily obtained on the web. The report has this to say on the subject:

In central Afghanistan occurrences of rare metals have been identified in sediments below several lakes and depressions where lake brines contain higher than average metal concentrations. Trial pits have indicated that salt deposits covered by clay and loam layers contain high concentrations of lithium, boron, lead and zinc.

In a 2006 special edition on Afghanistan of Mining Journal, pre-eminent publication in the field, the mining minister, Hon.Eng. Ibrahim Adel, writes in the introduction,

It is a privilege for me to draw your attention to this Mining Journal special supplement on Afghanistan. Mining in Afghanistan has a history dating back over 6,000 years, and despite all the upheavals over the past 25 years, mining has continued to operate. The main task facing us now is to expand the industry from its present small base. The Government regards the development of Afghanistan’s natural resources as the most important driver of economic growth, and essential to the reconstruction and development of the country…For example, construction minerals production has grown dramatically with the increased need for raw materials to feed road building and reconstruction. I expect this will be followed shortly by further investment in the coal, cement and hydrocarbons industries. The first signs of grassroots mineral exploration for gold have started, and with the appointment of Tender Advisors for the future development of the world class Aynak copper deposit, I expect this to lead to really significant investment in the mining sector of the economy in the very near future. Aynak is one of the world’s largest undeveloped copper deposits and it has already attracted interest from a wide spectrum of international companies.

Read the full article at:

http://unsilentgeneration.com/2010/06/14/the-pentagons-afghan-mineral-hype/

You can read the full Minerals in Afghanistan report at:

http://www.bgs.ac.uk/AfghanMinerals/docs/RareMetals_A4.pdf

And you can read the Mining Journal at:

http://www.bgs.ac.uk/afghanminerals/docs/afghan_supp_final.pdf

Those deposits have been known since the '70s when the Russinas were surveying. The only mystery is yesterday's "news".