Excavating a future in Afghanistan

[unhappycamper]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-afghanistan-mines-20130324,0,3542528.story



Drillers from Central Asian Mining Services collect samples from the North Aynak mineral zone outside Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan.

Excavating a future in Afghanistan
By Alexandra Zavis, Los Angeles Times
March 24, 2013

TAGHAR, Afghanistan — In a rugged valley outside Kabul, where mud-walled villages blend into bare scrubland, a team of international mining experts and Afghan trainees set up camp over the winter to probe the region's mineral resources.

Protected by armed guards, they spent three months drilling test holes into the snowcapped peaks, as curious goat- and sheepherders looked on.

"We hit copper damn near everywhere," said Robert Miller, a Colorado-based mining executive recruited by the Pentagon to help advise Afghan authorities on how to develop the country's natural resources. "It's a very encouraging finding."

Studies have found that Afghanistan, one of the world's poorest and most war-torn countries, sits atop hydrocarbon and mineral deposits that could be worth more than a trillion dollars. The Afghan government and its U.S. backers are counting on this largely untapped wealth — including oil, gas, copper, iron, gold and lithium — to bring in cash and create jobs as international assistance begins to wind down.