House Overwhelmingly Passes Trade Sanctions Bill Targeted At China

American Citizens Get Stuck With The Security Bill, While China and Russia Benefit from Afghanistan's Mineral Riches

 

Although the U.S. government has spent more than $940 billion on the conflict in Afghanistan since 2001, a treasure trove of mineral deposits, including vast quantities of industrial metals such as lithium, gold, cobalt, copper and iron, are likely to wind up going to Russia and China instead of American firms.

The New York Timesreported Monday that U.S. officials and American geologists have foundan estimated $1 trillion worth of mineral depositsthat have yet to be exploited in the country. The paper said a Pentagon report called Afghanistan potentially  "the Saudi Arabia of lithium," a key component in batteries for cellphones, laptop computers and eventually, a plug-in fleet of electric cars.

But while the United States and other North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries are providing the bulk of the security for Afghanistan -- U.S. troop levels are set to rise to 100,000 by year's end -- the firms that are profiting from the resource boom are primarily Chinese, and to a lesser extent, Russian.

"China has an absolute advantage in Afghanistan as far as resource development goes," says James R. Yeager, a Tucson, Ariz., consultant who worked as an adviser to the Afghan Ministry of Mines.

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