---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Marx Laboratory <[email protected]> Date: Wed, Jun 16, 2010 at 1:14 PM Subject: The Pentagon's Afghan Mineral Hype -A Pro-war PR Scam To: Marx Laboratory <[email protected]>
*1.* The Pentagon’s Afghan Mineral Hype Unsilent Generation, June 14, 2010 This morning’s New York Times<http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/14/world/asia/14minerals.html?pagewanted=all>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. James Risen in the *Times* reports : 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. 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 BlackBerrys. 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. Running counter to the claims of a huge discovery is an existing undated report called *Minerals in Afghanistan*<http://www.bgs.ac.uk/AfghanMinerals/docs/RareMetals_A4.pdf>, 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*<http://www.bgs.ac.uk/afghanminerals/docs/afghan_supp_final.pdf>, 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. *Mining Journal* provides an in depth account of the history and potential for mining all sorts of minerals. Here is the *Journal*‘s overview: Afghanistan has some of the most complex and varied geology in the world. The oldest rocks are Archean and they are succeeded by rocks from the Proterozoic and every Phanerozoic system up to the present day. The country also has a long and complicated tectonic history, partly related to its position at the western end of the Himalayas. This diverse geological foundation has resulted in a significant mineral heritage with over 1,400 mineral occurrences recorded to date. Historical mining concentrated mostly on precious stone production, with some of the oldest known mines in the world established in Afghanistan to produce lapis lazuli for the Egyptian Pharaohs. More recent exploration in the 1960s and 70s resulted in the discovery of significant resources ofmetallic minerals, including copper, iron and gold, and non-metallic minerals, including halite, talc and mica. The bedrock geology of Afghanistan can be thought of as a jigsaw of crustal blocks separated by fault zones, each with a different geological history and mineral prospectivity. This jigsaw has been put together by a series of tectonic events dating from the Jurassic up to the present. Among other things, Afghan emeralds are generally considered to be among the most beautiful in the world, rivaling the emeralds produced in Colombia. They were mined and sold for arms during the time of the Northern Alliance<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Alliance>; the famous Mujahideen leader Ahmed Shah Massoud <http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/12/emeralds-of-afghanistan/>funded his campaign by selling emeralds from the Panjshir Valley. More recently, sources with first hand knowledge of the business have reported that Afghan emeralds were blocked by the Colombian emerald cartel<http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/01/04/the_new_blood_diamonds>, though there are reports of Afghan emeralds being traded on the sly through Eastern Europe. URL http://unsilentgeneration.com/2010/06/14/the-pentagons-afghan-mineral-hype/ *2. * *‘Discovery’ of Afghan Riches a Pro-war PR Scam?* *-- A New York Times *report announcing the US has found $1 trillion-worth of mineral deposits in Afghanistan has some observers wondering if the news is part of a public-relations effort to bolster support for the Afghanistan war as the mission's death toll continues to climb. While the dollar estimate -- $1 trillion -- may be new, it's hardly news that Afghanistan sits on rich mineral deposits. In a 2007 press release<http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=1819>, the US Geological Survey announced that Afghanistan possesses "significant amounts of undiscovered non-fuel mineral resources." And, as Marc Ambinder reports<http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/06/the-mineral-miracle-or-a-massive-information-operation/58104/>on his *Atlantic* blog, the Soviet Union was aware of Afghanistan's mineral potential as early as 1985. “The ‘discovery’ of Afghanistan’s minerals will sound pretty silly to old timers,” a "retired former senior US official" tells Politico's Laura Rosen<http://www.politico.com/blogs/laurarozen/0610/Afghanistans_mineral_find_and_the_Washington_clock.html?showall>. “When I was living in Kabul in the early 1970’s the [US government], the Russians, the World Bank, the UN and others were all highly focused on the wide range of Afghan mineral deposits. Cheap ways of moving the ore to ocean ports has always been the limiting factor.” So why is this news now? To many, the story's timing suggests a Pentagon public relations campaign designed to extend public support for the war with the hope that, in time, Afghanistan may be able to raise itself out of abject poverty. "Why the story broke in the *NYT* on Sunday could be linked to a desire by the Pentagon to create a reason why US troops might want to stick around in Afghanistan for some time to come," writes Paul Jay<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-jay/us-knew-about-afghan-mine_b_610829.html>at the Huffington Post. "Things are not going very well on the ground and the promise of vast mineral riches would sound enticing." Some "veteran Afghan hands detect an echo of [Gen. David] Petraeus’ effort to 'put a little more time on the Washington clock' for the Afghanistan surge, as he once described<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/08/AR2009020802321.html>his public relations strategy to buy time in the US for the Iraq surge," Rosen reports. Indeed, the US military's need to shore up support for the war effort may be becoming critical. Recent news reports indicate that Afghan President Hamid Karzai may have lost his faith in the US military's ability to carry out the war. And Gareth Porter at IPS reports<http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=51804>that US forces are facing "the spectre of a collapse of U.S. political support for the war in Afghanistan in coming months comparable to the one that occurred in the Iraq War in late 2006." That context leads blogger Steve Hynd<http://www.newshoggers.com/blog/2010/06/iraqs-mineral-riches-a-conveniently-timed-zombie-story.html>to declare that the *Times* piece is "a conveniently timed zombie story" that was "resurrected yet again for political purposes." Even if one were to take the *Times* story at face value, the practical benefits of Afghanistan's mineral deposits are in doubt -- not least because of the country's weak central government, corruption and a lack of skilled labor. "Under even the rosiest scenarios, it does not appear the new wealth will change dynamics quickly enough in Afghanistan to aid the US military effort there," reports Alan Greenblatt<http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127838998&ft=1&f=1004>at NPR *Extracted from July 15, 2010 "**RawStory*<http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0614/discovery-afghan-riches-prowar-pr-scam/> *" * ==== *3.* *Say What? Afghanistan Has $1 Trillion in Untapped Mineral Resources?* A series of recent news stories has deeply damaged the Obama administration's case for continued patience with U.S.-led counterinsurgency campaign, which has shown little discernable progress despite the best efforts tens of thousands of additional American troops and an all-star lineup of top military officers. *Things don't look good for the United States ... which makes me suspicious of the timing of this attention-grabbing **James Risen story*<http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/14/world/asia/14minerals.html?ref=global-home> * in the Times, which opens with this mind-boggling lede:* 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." Wow! Talk about a game changer. The story goes on to outline Afghanistan's apparently vast underground resources, which include large copper and iron reserves as well as hitherto undiscovered reserves lithium and other rare minerals. Read a little more carefully, though, and you realize that there's less to this scoop than meets the eye. For one thing, the findings on which the story was based are online and have been since 2007<http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2007/3063/fs2007-3063.pdf>, courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey. More information is available on the Afghan mining ministry's website<http://www.bgs.ac.uk/afghanminerals/raremetal.htm>, including a report<http://www.bgs.ac.uk/afghanminerals/docs/RareMetals_A4.pdf>by the British Geological Survey (and there's more here <http://www.bgs.ac.uk/downloads/browse.cfm?sec=7&cat=83>). You can also take a look at the USGS's documentation of the airborne part of the survey here <http://afghanistan.cr.usgs.gov/airborne.php>, including the full set of aerial photographs<http://afghanistan.cr.usgs.gov/flash_tile.php?cat=NRL%20Aerial%20Photography%20preliminary%20Data>. Nowhere have I found that $1 trillion figure mentioned, which Risen suggests was generated by a Pentagon task force seeking to help the Afghan government develop its resources (looking at the chart<http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2010/06/14/world/asia/14minerals-graphic.html?ref=asia>accompanying the article, though, it appears to be a straightforward tabulation of the total reserve figures for each mineral times current the current market price). According to Risen, that task force has begun prepping the mining ministry to start soliciting bids for mineral rights in the fall. Don't get me wrong. This could be a great thing for Afghanistan, which certainly deserves a lucky break after the hell it's been through over the last three decades. But I'm (a) skeptical of that $1 trillion figure; (b) skeptical of the timing of this story, given the bad news cycle, and (c) skeptical that Afghanistan can really figure out a way to develop these resources in a useful way. It's also worth noting, as Risen does, that it will take years to get any of this stuff out of the ground, not to mention enormous capital investment. Moreover, before we get too excited about lithium and rare-earth metals and all that, Afghanistan could probably use some help with a much simpler resource: cement. According to an article<http://www.bgs.ac.uk/AfghanMinerals/docs/IndustrialMineralsFinalArticle.pdf>in the journal *Industrial Minerals*, "Afghanistan has the lowest cement production in the world at 2kg per capita; in neighbouring Pakistan it is 92kg per capita and in the UK it is 200kg per capita." Afghanistan's cement plants were built by a Czech company in the 1950s, and nobody's invested in them since the 1970s. Most of Afghanistan's cement is imported today, mainly from Pakistan and Iran. Apparently the mining ministry has been working to set up four new plants <http://www.embassyofafghanistan.org/inbrief.html>, but they are only expected to meet about half the country's cement needs. Why do I mention this? One of the smartest uses of development resources is also one of the simplest: building concrete floors<http://berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/03/10_floors.shtml>. Last year, a team of Berkeley researchers found that "replacing dirt floors with cement appears to be at least as effective for health as nutritional supplements and as helpful for brain development as early childhood development programs." And guess what concrete's made of? Hint: it's not lithium. *UPDATE:* Missed this *Wall Street Journal *story<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704905604575027673196231564.html>earlier. Money quote: [T]he Mines Ministry has long been considered among Afghanistan's most corrupt government departments, and Western officials have repeatedly expressed reservations about the Afghan government awarding concessions for the country's major mineral deposits, fearful that corrupt officials would hand contracts to bidders who pay the biggest bribes -- not who are best suited to actually do the work *Extracted from July 14, 2010 "**Foreign Policy*<http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/06/14/say_what_afghanistan_has_1_trillion_in_untapped_mineral_resources> *"* -- You cannot build anything on the foundations of caste. You cannot build up a nation, you cannot build up a morality. Anything that you will build on the foundations of caste will crack and will never be a whole. -AMBEDKAR http://venukm.blogspot.com http://www.shelfari.com/kmvenuannur http://kmvenuannur.livejournal.com -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB.
