Afghanistan minerals fully mapped

[hue]

Source: BBC News

Afghanistan has become the first country whose surface minerals have been mapped from the air.

The US Geological Survey released the results of a "hyperspectral imaging" effort, in which reflections of light shone from an aircraft are analysed.

Different minerals - as well as snow or vegetation - reflect specific colours, resulting in a "mineral map".
The map comprises more than 800 million data points corresponding to an area of 440,000 sq km, some 70% of the country.

Afghanistan is known to have vast reserves of oil, gas, copper, cobalt, gold and lithium. In late 2011, a consortium of Indian companies inked a deal to begin mining some of the country's large stores of iron.

But the country is known to have a wider array of mineral resources; in 2010, the Afghan ministry of mines claimed a value of its reserves of nearly a trillion dollars, then carrying out tours to promote investment in them.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18882996

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Here's what it's really all about!! The rapists are salivating & ready!!
Of course to the 1 %'ers the Afghan People are expendable!!

[Robb]

1. Or to the Chinese, who are already extracting resources.

Although you'll understand if I have trouble referring to China as "1%" of anything.

[sad sally]

4. And using US and British troops as protection over their operations.

[dipsydoodle]

2. On DU's home page there an unfortunate edit

"reflections of light shone from an aircraft are anal"

Aside from that the Russians have got all of the ground surveys from years ago.

[lark]

3. The nurse at my doctor's office is an Afghani

She said their country was absolutely awash in minerals, diamonds, sapphires, gold in abundance and that's why we are still there all these years later - trying to steal their heritage.

[sad sally]

5. More on the subject from 2010:

Timing of Afghan Mineral Story Wealth Evokes Skepticism
by Jim Lobe, June 15, 2010

The timing of the publication of a major New York Times story on the vast untapped mineral wealth that lies beneath Afghanistan’s soil is raising major questions about the intent of the Pentagon, which released the information.

Given the increasingly negative news that has come out of Afghanistan – and of U.S. strategy there – some analysts believe the front-page article is designed to reverse growing public sentiment that the war is not worth the cost.

“What better way to remind people about the country’s potential bright future – and by people I mean the Chinese, the Russians, the Pakistanis, and the Americans – than by publicizing or re-publicizing valid (but already public) information about the region’s potential wealth?” wrote Marc Ambinder, the political editor of The Atlantic magazine, on his blog.

snip

The nearly 1,500-word article, based almost entirely on Pentagon sources and featured as the lead story in Monday’s “Early Bird,” a compilation of major national security stories that the Pentagon distributes each morning, asserted that Afghanistan may have close to $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits. These include “huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold, and critical industrial metals like lithium,” the story said.

Afghanistan’s total annual gross domestic product (GDP) last year came to about $13 billion.

http://original.antiwar.com/lobe/2010/06/14/timing-of-afghan-mineral-wealth-evokes-skepticism/