Afghanistan Holds Enormous Bounty of Rare Earths, Minerals

Geologists have found a huge deposit of rare earth elements in Afghanistan. There is enough there to supply the earth's needs for 10 years says Robert Tucker, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientist who is the lead author on a report about the findings released on September 14.
There are many chemicals such as lanthanum, cerium and neodymium 1 million metric tons are known of at this point, these chemicals can be used to make explosives.

This discovery ranks Afghanistan in the top ten of the countries that have these elements. China is first and has the biggest export in this area in the world, currently holding 97% of the worlds supply. U.S. reserves are around 12 million metric tons.

Mr. Tucker was flown in, with a team of geologists, he arrived in black hawk helicopters with high security soldiers. He said that it was quite an experience looking for these elements in 14 pounds of protective gear. The deposit was near the border of Pakistan in a war zone.

This discovery is the most important part of the USGS's 2000 page report of the mineral deposit in Afghanistan. the deposit is valued at $420 million dollars, the report will be was delivered on September 29, 2011 to the Afghanistan embassy in Washington D.C.

On the second excursion to the site they learned that one of the minerals was ore, a canary yellow very rare element. The value of this element alone is thought to be 7.4 billion dollars.

The geologists will unfortunately not be able to make any more investigations because the USGS's funds have run out, so the deposit will remain untouched.

1. Do you think that the elements should be tapped, considering that they could be used for violence?
2. Would you go to the site, even if it was in a war zone?