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Originally Posted by JMvS
And of course all of this doesn't take into account the fact that mining has an extremely high environmental impact, and can require a lot of water, which is rather scarce in the area.
BTW, I'm a geology grad student, and for me the surprise is rather that those discoveries have been made public only now. As per all our mineral resources and gemology courses, this area is well known as one of the richest and most diverse in the World.
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There is this guy who made a movie about life in Afghanistan and in his set, he grew his own poppy by hiring water tankers. I believe with the proper irrigation techniques, water shouldn't be a problem.
I am not sure if Israel is a good example of a desert turned into a metropolis, but they have good water-carrier technologies which can similarly be used in Afghanistan.
However, starting a mining business can result in a resource war between hungry, high tech countries like China and US competing for raw material in that region. If things get bad enough, the Taliban might switch to using such resources to fund their insurgency, much like the Swat emerald mines.