NEW YORK (YBH.ME) – In 1979, Soviet geologists charted an enormous copper field, the so-called Aynak find. The contested land, long under Al Qaeda control, was largely unexploited due to years of civil war. China Metallurgical, 2 years after their winning bid was accepted by the government in Afghanistan, has begun mining what is thought to be 13 metric tonnes of copper, perhaps the biggest deposit known in the world.
Afghanistan, rich with copper.
At today’s prices, that’s $30 billion. The Afghan government will receive $400 million a year in mineral rights payments; local employment will see 10,000 new jobs, by some estimates.
Copper is a key mineral in fueling the industrial maw of China’s exploding growth, but this base metal is very much a component in green energy. Copper will be a major part of the “Green” movement as it focuses on stored electrical, rather than direct carbon-produced energy. As one energy executive put it “copper is to date the most efficient and cost effective means of transporting electricity, besides lightning.”
Bidders from Canada, Britain and the United States were disappointed to lose the contract, but will likely see business opportunities in building the needed power plants for the operation as it gets up to speed. The White House has hesitated in amping up troop commitments seen as crucial by General Stanley McChrystal, but international business has high hopes that Afghanistan will soon be stabilized enough to bring the one crop economy (poppies for heroin production) into the industrial age.
