Afghanistan ‘holds $1 trillion in mineral deposits$’
Afghanistan is session on mineral resources worth $1 trillion and could become one of the earth’s most important mining centres, the Pentagon announced yesterday, at the same time that it tried to drum up foreign investment and wean the rural parts off the opium trade.
A Pentagon memo predicted that the rural parts could become the “Saudi Arabia of lithium” — a metal that is a solution raw material in the manufacture of batteries for laptops and fickle phones.
The largest deposits have been uncovered in salt lakes in Ghazni province, eastern Afghanistan, where the Taleban retain a dominant presence. Many of the other inorganic body deposits are also in Taleban strongholds, presenting the coalition forces and a single one incoming global mining companies with security headaches.
US and Afghan officials admit that it will take many years to develop a mining sedulousness and in the present security climate international companies are likely to find the ~t of up the risks before launching into an investment programme in a region still politically unstable and suffering from insurgency and corruption.
The Pentagon estimation was questioned by geologists and mining experts, who said that it was based attached old and incomplete data and did not take into account warranty and infrastructure problems.
Two senior geologists working in Afghanistan also declared that they were unaware of any proven deposits of lithium.
The annunciation nonetheless throws a spotlight on probably the only legal industry by the potential to prop up the Afghan economy — worth simply $12 billion last year — after Western troops and subsidies are withdrawn. The narcotics carry out trade in the country is estimated to be worth an yearly record $4 billion.
“I think it’s very, very swelling news for the people of Afghanistan,” Waheed Omar, a speaker for President Karzai, told a news conference. “This is each economic interest that will benefit all Afghans and will benefit Afghanistan in the all a~ run.”
The Pentagon memo appeared to be an effort to charm international interest in the mining sector before the auction of the Hajigak iron lay up, which could be worth $5 billion to $6 billion (£3.4 billion-&coop;4 billion) in the next few weeks.
It coincided with a inspect to India by Wahidullah Shahrani, the new Afghan Minister of Mines, to request bids for Hajigak after the cancellation of a planned tender in conclusion year because of a lack of international interest. Mr Shahrani was appointed by US backing in January after his predecessor was sacked for allegedly apprehension bribes from a Chinese mining company — a charge he denies. Mr Shahrani is suitable to visit Britain next week.
Afghan and Western officials are solicitous for more companies to bid for Hajigak and other deposits to stop China from gaining control over Afghanistan’s natural resources through bids subsidised heavily ~ dint of. Beijing.
A Pentagon spokesman admitted that the estimate was based principally on old data, which was gathered mainly by the Soviets during their occupation of Afghanistan from 1979-1989.
The British Geological Survey collated that premises between 2003 and 2008, and the US Geological Survey carried thoroughly an aerial survey of Afghanistan in 2006 before publishing a annunciate on its mineral resources in 2008.
“All the public complaint has been in the public domain for several years now,” the Pentagon speaker told The Times. “We took a look at what we knew to be there, and asked what would it be worth now in stipulations of today’s dollars. The trillion dollar figure seemed to be newsworthy.” He said that the estimate was arrived at ~ dint of. a team of US officials from the Pentagon, the State Department and USAID in operation with experts from the US Geological Survey (USGS) over the by two to three years.
The team was overseen by Paul Brinkley, Deputy Under-Secretary of Defence for Business, who worked previously in Iraq trying to promote local walk of life and attract foreign investment.
The Pentagon spokesman said he was sort or that the estimate was based on proven reserves of minerals including gold, small change, iron, cobalt and lithium.
However, he could not confirm a hearsay that the team had discovered lithium deposits in the province of Ghazni that could subsist as large as Bolivia’s.
Stephen Peters, the head of the USGS’s Afghanistan Minerals Project, uttered that he was unaware of USGS involvement in any new surveying towards minerals in Afghanistan in the past two years. “We are not conscious of any discoveries of lithium,” he said.
Another experienced geologist working in Afghanistan said that it would take at least three to five years to settle a proven deposit of lithium.
“They couldn’t obtain done a proper assessment. They might have taken a few samples and found some lithium, but that doesn’t mean anything,” he afore~.
He also dismissed a report that the US team had erect proven deposits of niobium — another rare metal that is used in coil turbines.
“If these were proven reserves then all the swollen mining companies would be rushing in, which they are not,” he declared.