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View Full Version : US Discovers Vast Riches of Minerals in Afghanistan



Silverbird
06-14-2010, 09:09 AM
http://www.cnbc.com/id/37678403

alevin
06-14-2010, 09:21 AM
Considering the natural resources in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, this is not totally surprising. Maybe a new job opportunity for young people in the future...theirs, ours, whoever can get geology, mine engineering educations, as well as skilled labor jobs. And of course-at some point later, mine reclamation jobs-soil, revegetation, water quality monitoring......acid mine cleanup...., environmental medicine (exposure detox, etc).

Buster
06-14-2010, 09:38 PM
Considering the natural resources in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, this is not totally surprising. Maybe a new job opportunity for young people in the future...theirs, ours, whoever can get geology, mine engineering educations, as well as skilled labor jobs. And of course-at some point later, mine reclamation jobs-soil, revegetation, water quality monitoring......acid mine cleanup...., environmental medicine (exposure detox, etc).

Two things..

First, I agree Alevin, that this is maybe a brink new way of life for Afganistan, if these Natural resources are managed and used to better everybody...this is something like what put the USA on the map..Everybody wins and maybe this will if done right, get the Poppy growers on to doing something good for the world instead of growing Heroin.

Second, I can just hear it now.."The US is there to win control of these resources"..Like what has been said about Iraq and the war for oil there....So on that notion, we had better stay way back and offer up scientific and industrial help to them, only if they ask for it....Course as a side thought, that's what we did with the OPEC nations and we see how much we need them now.:rolleyes:

All these things were pointed out in the attached video.

burrocrat
06-14-2010, 10:10 PM
Considering the natural resources in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, this is not totally surprising. Maybe a new job opportunity for young people in the future...theirs, ours, whoever can get geology, mine engineering educations, as well as skilled labor jobs. And of course-at some point later, mine reclamation jobs-soil, revegetation, water quality monitoring......acid mine cleanup...., environmental medicine (exposure detox, etc).

subtle alevin, subtle. didn't even need to use a smiley for the bit of sarcasm to shine through, i get it.

at the risk of falling into buster's trap, there is a reason two world powers have chased this thing around for almost, what, 40 years now? and i don't think it was to make the folks squatting in mud huts feel all warm and fuzzy, heck that would be too easy, thousand points of light and all, just pray they don't come from the sky, or from a buried cooler, drone, whatever.

Buster
06-14-2010, 10:32 PM
subtle alevin, subtle. didn't even need to use a smiley for the bit of sarcasm to shine through, i get it.

at the risk of falling into buster's trap, there is a reason two world powers have chased this thing around for almost, what, 40 years now? and i don't think it was to make the folks squatting in mud huts feel all warm and fuzzy, heck that would be too easy, thousand points of light and all, just pray they don't come from the sky, or from a buried cooler, drone, whatever.You mis read me 100%..bubba..I set no traps..I was being sincere and thoughtful in my post..careful mate, you are making assumptions and I take issue.

alevin
06-14-2010, 11:24 PM
Funny, I wasn't being sarcastic either. Just realistic. I spent weeks in China about 10 years ago, with colleagues from a professional organization, met with development specialists of all kinds-urban planners, educators, relocation specialists (think 2 million people relocated from remote rural farms to Shanghai 2000 miles away), dam engineers, environmental scientists of all flavors-geologists (think earthquake potential associated with biggest dam in the world), think flood hazards, think water pollution. Ten years ago, China for the first time was instituting water quality controls on chemical plants in the headwaters of the 4th longest river in the world.

They made gardens out of plants in flowerpots on concrete in the cities. No public green space except a Buddhist monastery turned into a tourist park. People had jobs watering hundreds of flower pots each day to keep the plants alive. Ten years ago, the government had just finally set limits on logging steep slopes to reduce soil erosion in the headwaters of the 4th longest river in the world.

In 3 weeks time, I only saw one small part of the country where the community took active steps to prevent soil erosion on terraced farmland on mountainsides where there were no roads. Mountains everywhere we went in the entire country was terraced for farming-by hand over centuries, no efforts to prevent soil erosion anywhere-except that one small area-where maybe somebody went to school and picked up a new idea.

Hydropower-no fish ladders over the dams, no plans for them. If China is now where we were 50-60 years ago re environmental protections to undo damage or prevent damage....just think how many years it will be for Afghanistan once they begin to industrialize, after all the decades and centuries of poverty and war damage already done and still happening.

Think China will sit still with resources that close to their border? They may become the next great superpower to try to take over. best of luck to them, doubt they'd do any better than the rest. Although if they do it via economic investment, just think of all those USD they have available to invest.

burrocrat
06-14-2010, 11:37 PM
well shoot, 'parently my crystal balls is broken, misread two friends in one post, see what you want to see i guess.

maybe i'm the sarcastic one, actually, no maybe bout that.

hey i'm all for diversification, if the mineral wealth exploited by foreign corporations at the expense of the local environment don't work out for them, at least they got the poppy crop to fall back on.

KevinD
06-15-2010, 06:12 AM
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_ts2565


the story raises as many questions as it answers. Afghanistan has long been known as mineral-rich country.

Frixxxx
06-15-2010, 08:27 AM
Does this mean they can stop growing poppies?:mad: