Listening to the phenomenal (plug) new
The Chemical Brothers album ‘Further’ on Spotify is no coincidence. Recently, news about countries and their mineral supplies have been flooding the news sites and blogs. Time for some (chemical) refinement while reading the following articles.
The Afghan Girl in 1984 and 2002, by Steve McCurry for National Geographic
I dug into the news and found some opinions here:
First of all, it is old news, says Al Jazeera. Trying to win minerals from Aghanistan’s soil has proven difficult throughout the years, even since 1841. The British Empire failed, the Soviet Union failed and the Worldbank already published this kind of news in a 2004 report. So, nothing is new, again. Obviously, the problem is in security and transport.
Read: Afghanistan’s ‘game-changer’
Huffington Post Blogger, Jeremy White, acknowledges the old news and problems as well and compares the idea of these minerals financing the Aghan future rebuilt with the Bush adminstration claiming that the Iraqi oil would finance the reconstruction after the war.
Read: Why News of Mineral Deposits in Afghanistan Is Neither New Nor GOOD
Washington Post’s Kathleen Parker makes a point that while it will take decades to setup the proper industry for mineral harvesting, the key to success is education of the rising generation. She might be right about that and it shows that the First Ladies might succeed better in long term than the Presidents themselves.
Read: The power of education is the real gold in Afghanistan
CNN interviewed the Time Magazine reporter Joe Klein and geologists Jack Medlin, both recently returnign from Aghanistan. They agree that the US government was in need of some good news and elaborate on the problem of infrastructure, including that of energy supply. There is only one real road in Aghanistan.
Read: Why all the talk about minerals now?
Newsweek offers 5 more views on the topic, including mentioning that the mineral harvesting might actually be a threat to the agricultural markets which are Aghanistan’s lifeblood.
Read: Digging Into the Afghan Mineral Story
The Washington Independent provides some takeways from the news, including adding that the adsense of a legal structure is a barrier to set up a mineral industry.
Read: Some Takeaways From the Pentagon’s Afghanistan Minerals Briefing
The War on Resources
While all this news focuses on the truth behind these discoveries and the problems for setting up an industry, the main reason we hear is that the Pentagon needed some good news. While there might be good reasons for that, i think there is a larger picture here.
China is investing in securing resources for their people’s increasing life standard at an accelerated speed says this Wood MacKenzie report. And this is not only oil. They are expanding their interests in area’s with larger risks and seem determined to create a complete and reliable ecosystem for harvesting, trade and transport.
The last trigger for these thoughts came through the news today that China is heavily investing in Greece, including shipping and developing harbour activity to match that of Rotterdam in the Netherlands.
Read: China buys Greek when no one else will
While many countries are on a war on terrorism and have their economy in serious depression, China is doing the investment that has a measurable return on it, in countries around the world that have a need for the large amounts of money that China has at its disposal. And most of those investments are done in stealth mode, so how to assess the current status?
I guess this is the main reason why the US is pushing this news. Opening up the bids and making them transparent, creates a more difficult mode of operation for China, who does not shy away from ‘donations’ to reach their goals.
The US don’t want to win the War On Terrorism and loose the War On Resources at the same time. And this is true for us in Europe too, especially with China already gnawing at our right hind leg…
Why am I posting this piece on my blog that is mostly about startups and their business?
Well firstly, this is startup business, only the scale is a lot bigger than most startups. It is interesting to see the strategies. But secondly, the analogy to a startup has more to it. Sitting on a trillion dollars of minerals is like having an idea that might conquer the world. Without a structure, experience and education, energy, a market, promotion, distribution ànd money, your chances get dim. As the activities and China might be compared to large investment strategies, i am just curious what venture capital firms might take away from this global game as inspiration.
Thirdly, this is also a social curation / filtering experiment. I am not telling you why. 
