Posted on 10/23/2015 4:59:48 AM PDT by huldah1776
Taliban fighters aren't just making gains on the battlefield: They're also bleeding away a revenue source that is crucial for Afghanistan to pay for its military without US help.
The Afghan government will earn about $30 million in 2015 from its mineral sector for the third straight year, far short of a previous projection of $1.5 billion, according to Mines and Petroleum Minister Daud Shah Saba. That's also a quarter of what smugglers -mostly linked to the Taliban and local warlords -earn annually selling rubies and emeralds, he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at economictimes.indiatimes.com ...
Exactly. By the stupid, stupid people running our government.
Ultimately China will have the key to Afghan mineral wealth.
The issue is lack of infrastructure to either efficiently mine or transport the rare minerals found there.
Depends on weather the Chinese want to fight a war. If they do, I wonder what their rules of engagement would be. By the way, Petraeus is advising on Daesh.
Is there even one gov that was toppled for the good of its citizens?
Very rare minerals is the reason Russia went in to Afghanistan in the first place.
It is why we replaced the invading Soviets after they continuously got their hat handed to them.
That figure is vastly overstated. It's a bit like saying there's $10,000 trillion worth of gold in the ocean (20 million tons @$500 million per). It neglects extraction and shipping costs and other risks.
No way they will get even 10% of that amount. The Chinese started a copper project, which was undoubtably the most concentrated and accessible "wealth". They paid 3-4% of its "value" and so far have nothing.
Actually it’s worth about $4-7 trillion.
And I’ve been talking about this for years.
China will be digging it out of the ground because they don’t care what government your country chooses. And they will do it without firing a shot.
No. Never.
That is the reason we need to stop the Military Industrial Complex, bring our folks home and keep our noses out of the business of the world.
America does not want to own Afghanistan. As Trump would say, make a deal and make them pay for our support. The heroin is going to Russia, which is probably why the CIA didn’t want the opium fields blasted (my son did say they are beautiful—about the only pretty part there except for some hills at sunrise and sunset).
There is no way no one had a plan to get Afghanistan back on its feet. The investors backed out in case you didn’t read the source.
“A consortium of six companies led by Steel Authority of India has also stopped talks on mining an iron ore deposit, Saba said.Once valued at $11 billion, the project was forecast to generate $200 million in annual government revenue by 2017. SAIL didn’t respond to an email seeking comment.
“Mining projects including Mes Aynak and Hajigak are now turning into a nightmare,” Mohammad Zakaria Sawda, head of the Afghan parliament’s natural resources commission, said by phone.”
It is. From the source:
Minerals are the Taliban’s second-biggest income source after narcotics, a United Nations Security Council committee wrote in a February report.
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