Afganisthan - Who's mine is it anyways?

The mineral wealth of Afghanisthan is back in the limelight but this time backed by all the media hype and hoopla expected off a White House propaganda. Those who know geology and the metals and minerals sector, know that Afghanisthan has always had unexplored possibilities but with Obama administration coming with a blatant number to justify and perhaps intensify its presence in the country is complete foolishiness.

Playing the mineral rich card and good-cop card against the Russians and Chinese is the perhaps the perfect bet for Obama Administration to keep the support for Afghan operations going. But this is so fake, administration is making a good fool of itself.

Here is a quick take of Casey's Investigative Reporter had to say:

The $1 trillion figure is totally bogus.

A "small team of Pentagon officials and American geologists" cannot possibly have drilled off these deposits, let alone done the engineering required to value them. At the very best, they've spotted some outcrops and taken some samples, and are circulating a gross metal value figure based on what can only be guesses as to the volume of potentially economic mineralization -- which no responsible geologist would do.

The soldier quoted says "there are a lot of ifs," but that does not excuse putting out the $1 trillion figure, a number that there is no reasonable way to support at this point.

This doesn't mean the minerals are not there – Afghanistan is known to have a good mineral endowment – but the government’s release sounds like the sort put out by Pink Sheet scammers. It will take time for any real discoveries to be made, especially given the time required to draft a workable mining law and for physical security to be established in the country.