Afghanistan copper deposits worth $88 billion attract Chinese investors

The Times (UK) ^ | May 15, 2008 | Jeremy Page in Aynak

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Somewhere beneath the valley floor lies one of the world?s biggest untapped copper deposits, worth up to £44 billion

In a dusty, windswept valley 20 miles southwest of Kabul there stands a cluster of derelict buildings, littered with shrapnel, shell casings and unexploded ordnance.

It is an unremarkable scene by Afghan standards – at first sight, just another sad monument to three decades of war.

Yet this desolate, seemingly hopeless, place is the source of Afghanistan’s most recent chapter of violence – and possibly now of a brighter economic future.

It was here, in the Aynak valley, that al-Qaeda trained and planned for the 9/11 attacks that triggered the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. And it is here, seven years on, that Afghanistan – with the help of British geologists and a Chinese mining company – will lay the foundations of a new economy in the next few weeks.

Somewhere beneath the valley’s floor lies one of the world’s biggest untapped copper deposits, estimated to be worth up to $88_billion (£44 billion) – more than double Afghanistan’s entire gross domestic product (GDP) in 2007. In November, a 30-year lease was sold to the China Metallurgical Group for $3 billion, making it the biggest foreign investment and private business venture in Afghanistan’s history. Last week the Afghan Government approved the contract, clearing the way for the revival of an industry that dates back to Alexander the Great.

“After ten to 12 years, Afghanistan’s people will have fair living standards,” declares Ibrahim Adel, the Minister of Mines, and one of the few optimists left in Kabul. “Afghanistan will not need to borrow or ask for any money.”

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

A useful crop,...rather than poppies...

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

H/T to the Long War Journal for pointing to this.

[Brilliant]

It’s hard for me to understand why US companies have not tapped into this. I wonder how one would go about doing that? $88 billion is a lot of money.

[smoketree]

That’s easy.
The BDM will villify any company and Bush as raping and pillaging the country and that Bush invaded for for big copper and once again we will be the bad guys.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I suspect we were in there bidding,...but the Chinese outbid everyone....they are driving the world’s commodity boom.

[Orange1998]

How stupid can we get. al-Qaeda runs the country and could use the 3 Billion for war against us. Maybe no American company would touch this deal since they refuse to do business with Al-Qaeda.

[Daus]

and one of the few optimists left in Kabul

Heh... It's just not possible for the liberal writer to make it through a single article without throwing a crack like that in. Of course he's an optimist, he just sold a track of Afghani wasteland for $3B!

[RightWhale]

Major copper site in Alaska being held hostage by, who else, Greenies.

[cripplecreek]

A useful crop,...rather than poppies...

Not to mention providing many wonderful opportunities to cover their arms sales to our enemies in the region. (you know, the folks who are killing our troops)

[lewislynn]

It’s hard for me to understand why US companies have not tapped into this.

I'm not so sure they'd know what to do with it once they got it. US companies no longer invest in their future. If they can't fool you into thinking they're saving the planet, they don't want any part of it.

US companies and the US government have allowed themselves (US) to be relegated the bitches for the greenies and the red Commies in China.

[BlazingArizona]

It’s hard for me to understand why US companies have not tapped into this.

Because if we did, wed would immediately be accused of colonialism. Let China make the first investment and take the initial risk. The more countries depend on us for the security of their Afghan investments, the better.

[CharlesWayneCT]

It’s nice, but you cannot become a prosperous nation simply by selling off your nonrenewable natural resources.

They will end up like the oil nations in the end, out of product and with no other reason for existance.

A country needs industry to thrive. It can be agriculture, or some manufacturing, or a service that can be sold outside of their borders.

[C210N]

$88 billion is a lot of money.

nah, its just pennies

[bert]

.....They will end up like the oil nations in the end.....

That is a seriously flawed view.

The oil nations have used the oil proceeds to build infrastructure including roads, water systems, schools and hospitals.....all of which are necessary for an industrial/business economy. The industrial development follows using the infrastructure as a platform on which to build.

[AuntB]

“In November, a 30-year lease was sold to the China Metallurgical Group for $3 billion, making it the biggest foreign investment and private business venture in Afghanistan’s history.”

So we sent our young men to die in that place so CHINA can invest and take over?

This is good? Not if it’s anything like what they’ve done in the Sudan.

[E. Cartman]

I suspect we were in there bidding,...but the Chinese outbid everyone....they are driving the world’s commodity boom.

Then let the effin' Chicoms pay to rebuild this craphole of a country. We rescued the Afghanis, we damn well have a right to first crack at their commodities.

Is it extortion? Maybe...but sometimes La Cosa Nostra really does know the best way to do business.

[NormsRevenge]

Pinch me .. or is this is so much a repeat of WW2 and Japan and resources, the US is blindly going down a path where it is going to continue to be asked to be competitive even when countries such as China need available resources just to sustain themselves and eventually just grab them like Japan. Their presence in
Africa isn’t due to navigational errors.

Just another wayout there scenario?

Too bad the GReens are so dedicated to strangle our own production domestically, it almost seems too coincidental that they might also receive support from sympathetic folks and then use it to grease the skids at home to stop all drilling, new refineries, nuke power, you name it and then add the misguided rush to use corn for ethanol fuel and make the energy situation even worse. Congre$$ is not clean in any way, shape, or form amidst all this intrigue.

Nope it doesn’t pay to be a conspiratorial subscribee these days, nope, the real big money is in political subterfuge.

[Marine_Uncle]

I believe it is called globalization. US companies buy mostly junk goods from China. China uses the money to make capital investments in Afghanistan, reap some nice profits over some twenty years plus, if all goes, well, then pulls out. Mission accomplished.
And if all goes well they should have a nice piece of change to help build their nuclear fleet, airforce and conventional forces further up the ladder.
Wonder what the Russians are thinking over this. They missed their chance.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Just saw this:

Princeton's Burton Malkiel says U.S. investors are underweight China

************************EXCERPT**********************

LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- When it comes to China, history is bound to repeat itself and investors should be ready.

"People don't realize that in 1820, China was not only the most populated nation in the world, not only with the most land area, but was the greatest economic power in the world," said Princeton University Economics Prof. Burton Malkiel, who had a packed room of portfolio managers, analysts and certified financial planners hanging on his every word Wednesday evening at a presentation for the CFA Society of Los Angeles.

And in 20 years, China will once again claim that title, hence the need for investors to make sure they've got the proper exposure, said Malkiel, who wrote the recently published, "From Wall Street to the Great Wall: How Investors Can Profit from China's Booming Economy."

Continued strong economic expansion will make this prediction a reality, said Malkiel, who noted explosive growth in China the last 25 years, averaging 9% to 10% annually. In 2006 and 2007, growth exceeded 11%. "No nation in history has ever grown at this sustained rate," he said.

Much of that growth owes to the culture of the people, a key reason for his bullishness. "The hard-working Chinese energy makes New York look like a sleepy town," he said.

Malkiel said investors who can only see as far as the 2008 Summer Beijing Olympics should be looking ahead to even bigger events such as the 2010 World's Fair, due to be hosted in Shanghai and expected to be the most spectacular in history.

But he also points to several other factors that support the growth picture: development and urbanization of the country's Middle and Western regions, a large and increasingly educated labor force, continued infrastructure investments, the government's determination not to repeat past mistakes and also its unwavering belief that China will be a major power.

"They know they were the greatest country in the world," said Malkiel. "They'll do it again."

High, but bumpy road to China