
Afghanistan was thought to be a hardscrabble wasteland good for producing little more than opium—that is until a gang of American geologists working from old Soviet maps uncovered a variety of mineral deposits thought to be rich enough to radically alter our whole concept of Afghanistan and the war to control it.
New York Times:
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 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.
U.S. Army / Staff Sgt. William Tremblay
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