[marktwain]

An untameable land. The wealth of valuable elements cannot be extracted safely. The people want chronic carnage; it is what they know.

Exactly. All mountainous areas have minerals. It is extracting them, and difficult and expensive it is that translates into whether they are valuable or not.

Afghanistan's minerals are not valuable because there is no easy way to extract them.

There are plenty of valuable minerals in the solar system. They are not valuable (yet) because it is too expensive to extract them.

Just because a place has minerals does not mean those minerals are valuable.

[marktwain]

and difficult and expensive it is

Should be "and how difficult and expensive it is"