Mining’s old guard needs strong medicine
A new report details subpar investor returns in the mining industry over the last decade, particularly big cap diversified companies which have not adapted to new realities.
Science has a new piece out on Afghanistan’s mining potential. Read: Mother of all lodes (behind paywall)
According to the article, the US Department of Defence has the country’s mineral wealth tapped at $908 billion. The Afghans prefer the figure of $3 trillion.
That bounty is a product of a tortured tectonic history: Afghanistan is an amalgam of at least four pieces of crust squashed together by the collision of the Indian subcontient with Asia.
When US forces arrived in Kabul in 2004, they were disappointed to learn the Afghan Geological Survey (AGS) had been looted by the Taliban with its windows blown out. They turned to Soviet data, combined with their own airborne surveys to map the country’s mineral wealth. This was especially dangerous in some parts of the country, where the security situation remains precarious 13 years after the US led invasion began.
“You’re not so much worried about whether you will get shot or not, but whether you can get samples in the 20 minutes or so you have on the ground.”
In addition to the security concerns, the country has major infrastructure problems, with little to no available roads, railroads, electricity, energy and water to speak of.
However, that has not stopped the Afghan government from carving off a copper deposit to a Chinese firm, and another iron ore deposit to an Indian group. Last month, the Afghani parliament passed the country’s first mining law.
Science argues that the next hurdle to overcome in the country is the government’s unrealistic expectations. They want up to 50% of any project, which is 10x that of other countries with much better security and infrastructure situations. The Afghani’s must understand that massive capital investment is required and will take decades to bear fruit.
For all their trouble, the AGS has a comfortable new facility in Kabul and are moving forward as best they can.
Mining, believes James Devine of the USGS, “will get Afghanistan out of the 14th century.”
Source:
Science 15 August 2014:
Vol. 345 no. 6198 pp. 725-727
DOI: 10.1126/science.345.6198.725
Mother of all lodes
by Richard Stone
17 Comments
aspen5121
I’m not surprised at this at all. I figured that’s why the Americans were so interested in Afghanistan………….Iraq being another example….that’s now backfired on them.
Medias90
So what?
Medias90
Speculation on top of speculation and sensationalism
aspen5121
apologies for pointing out the obvious.
fred quimby
the usa and canada, mexicon, and even probably the Philippines make these values like a baby in comparison
golddigger69
This story will not die. Everything about it is a spoof on a charade. “Confirmed mineral reserves”: show me one drill report, assay, resource model–there are none. Over half is in speculative iron deposits (shown on map despite claim of “non-ferrous”) from a land-locked country.
Smells a lot like CYA
Grad
What a lot of ignorant crap
Firdaus Abbasi
@aspen5121:disqus
I would add Pakistan as well; India would be too large and coherent to swallow and Mongolia is now a Chinese sphere of influence!
Firdaus Abbasi
…. Ask the people of those nations to vote on who they prefer and the Afghans may vote Obama and outvote Karazai or Mamnoon.
Hussain. Lodes are more fairly realised by liberal capitalists than some benevolent tyrants or socialists or those temporary office boys who dance to all masters and any tunes.
From Sophocles, 400 b.c, a timely warning suitably reformed:
Nought from the non-capitalists towards me hath sped well.
So now I find that ancient proverb true,
Non-western gifts are no gifts: profit bring they none.
Thestarv
Excuse me for not choking on my cheerios while reading this…
Mike Failla
There may be minerals there, but there be lunatics there also who want to live in the 13th century. And cut your infidel head off. No thanks.
Wanderlust
Isn’t this interesting! Geology by armchair bozos who work their “magic” over a map of a country. I bet they already figured out how to mine the deposits and will probably finace the projects with Bitcoins! What utter CRAP. Put this story next to your asteroid and comet mining articles and then flush. These aricles are insulting the intelligence of anyone in the mining business and should be ignored.
LB
Those aren’t reserves by any stretch of the definition; they are anomalies that indicate the possible presence of mineralization. You can’t even call them resources and they may not be even be economic.
sailormac
–Mining, …. “will get Afghanistan out of the 14th century.”–
No, it won’t
Alexander Chaihorsky
I spent 2010-2012 in Afghanistan as a geologist for Task Force for Business and Stability Operations (DoD). I also was the only geologist Russian speaker on the Team that allowed me to read the Russian geological exploration Reports (of which there are about 3,000). I am also a working field geologist out of Reno, Nevada and because of that I spend most of that time IN Afghanistan, rather than in Washington. I will not participate in any of the discussions below, but anyone who is seriously interested in the matter can contact me at [email protected]. Best, Alex.
Mark Harder
Scientific American published an article about this topic recently. Sampling was conducted under armed guard. I imagine you would have to be a well experienced prospecting geologist to collect relevant and representative samples in 20 min. I believe it also said that outsiders, China in particular, have been investing in Afghan claims (or whatever they call exploration and exploitation rights there. I imagine we’ll have to wait years before knowing if these reports pan out.
Confucicius
Read ‘lodes’ in “Mother of all lodes” as ‘crap’.