Washington, June 14 (IANS) Afghanistan has nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits including lithium, iron and copper, the US government estimates.
A New York Times report Monday said the previously unknown deposits – iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals like lithium – were large and included minerals essential for modern industry.
All this could eventually transform Afghanistan into one of the most important mining centres in the world.
The vast mineral wealth was discovered by a small team of Pentagon officials and US geologists. The Afghan government and President Hamid Karzai were recently briefed, US officials said.
The report said that an internal Pentagon memo states that Afghanistan could become the ‘Saudi Arabia of lithium’, a key raw material in the manufacture of batteries for laptops and BlackBerrys.
While it could take many years to develop a mining industry, the potential is so great that officials and executives in the industry believe it could attract heavy investment even before mines become profitable.
‘There is stunning potential here,’ Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of the US Central Command, said in an interview.
‘There are a lot of ifs, of course, but I think potentially it is hugely significant,’ the report quoted him as saying.
The value of the newly discovered mineral deposits dwarfs the size of Afghanistan’s existing war-bedraggled economy, which is based largely on opium production and narcotics trafficking as well as aid from the US and other industrialized countries.
Afghanistan’s gross domestic product is only about $12 billion. ‘This will become the backbone of the Afghan economy,’ said Jalil Jumriany, an adviser to the Afghan minister of mines.
The report said the new found wealth could also cause problems. It could lead the Taliban to battle even more fiercely to regain control of the country, the newspaper said.
The corruption that is already rampant could also be amplified by the new wealth, particularly if a handful of well-connected oligarchs, some with personal ties to the president, gain control of the resources.
Endless fights could erupt between the central government in Kabul and provincial and tribal leaders in mineral-rich districts.
At the same time, American officials fear resource-hungry China will try to dominate the development of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth, which could upset the US, given its heavy investment in the region.
With virtually no mining industry or infrastructure in place today, it will take decades for Afghanistan to exploit its mineral wealth fully.
The mineral deposits are scattered throughout the country, including in the southern and eastern regions along the border with Pakistan that have had some of the most intense combat in the US-led war against the Taliban.
