US geologists find $1 trillion of untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan. How will this affect the war?

I guess now we know that once the war is over, we can demand reparations from Afghanistan.

It will prolong the war indefinitely. The Afghan government will give mineral leases to US and European companies to do the mining (not a lot of domestic mining companies in Afghanistan). The terms of the leases will be terrible for Afghans, and a select few in the government and a few closely connected to them will get stinking rich. Meanwhile, the average Afghan will remain dirt poor, as mining companies will import workers to avoid investing in training Afghans. This will just amplify the conflict with the Taliban and require a US presence indefinitely to protect mining interests.

Doesn't matter. The Hayabusa mission shows the feasibility of asteroid mining. Welcome to the future!

Rare earth minerals - the largest producer? china..

So the US is going nowhere.

There is a load of crap about how the Afghans won't let foreigners dig up their homeland etc.

BS...the place is huge. You want to dig a hole here and pay us $50k each? Knock yourselves out...

I heard Haliburton already has the exclusive contract with the Afghans to mine the ore.

CHINA IS ALREDY DIGGING IN AFGHANISTAN. HUGE *SS MINE.

Precious Roy wrote:

It will prolong the war indefinitely.

How's that different from the current situation? The only way we'll get out of Afghanistan is when we decide to leave. Britain couldn't straighten them out, the USSR couldn't straighten them out, and it's become pretty obvious the US won't straighten them out. The trillions in mineral wealth can be acquired more easily elsewhere. You'd have to be pretty hard up to want to set up an industry in a war zone. This won't affect US involvement at all.

USA = THE BAD GUYS IN AVATAR

We'll get out as soon as the Afghans can fund their own army. Since they have never done that, it will probably be a while...

Sadbut True wrote:

USA = THE BAD GUYS IN AVATAR

When I first read the headline I wondered if we had discovered a large deposit of unobtanium in Afghanistan.

joho wrote:

Sadbut True wrote:

USA = THE BAD GUYS IN AVATAR

When I first read the headline I wondered if we had discovered a large deposit of unobtanium in Afghanistan.

You trying to make a joke from a random movie people might not know backfires!

unobtanium was synthesized meaning it does not occur in nature!

obama should remove his militants to save their lives. casualties are mounting for his zionist invaders and more Islamic Freedom Fighters are joining the resistance to US Imperialism every day. obama's Crusade Against Islam is a lost cause.

Brilliant! That is exactly what we are doing in these countries, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. Stealing their natural resources and calling them the bad guys.

Read the book:

"In the Graveyard of Empires"

Go wikipedia operation ajax. we overthrew the democratically elected leader of iran and put into power a dictator. This isnt a conspiracy, it is openly admitted.

sad news for Afghanistan - being able to dig wealth up from the ground is like poison for a country - there are very few third world nations with both oil and economic and political freedom. Mining rights will cause war and corruption.

Since China seems to own something like 90% of all rare earth minerals, my guess is that Chinese companies will somehow outbid all other concerned parties and take claim to all mineral rights in Afghanistan...much the same as no US oil company has won any contracts from the Iraqi goverment to pump oil out of the ground.

The US is spending an awful lot of money to "stabilize" Iraq and Afghanistan so that foreign companies can reap the rewards.

what would you have them(the US government) do?

the US does depend on oil. Are we supposed to not try to protect our access to it? We're just supposed to risk not having it at all?

maybe now the millennia of fighting over a desert wasteland inhabited by primitive cave-dwelling cultists can yield something worthwhile