Original title: beggars sitting on Jinshan and Silver Mountain: what are the mineral reserves in Afghanistan?

According to the World Bank's 2018 Business Environment report, Afghanistan ranks 183rd out of 191 economies in the business environment; in the 2018 Global Happiness Index report released by the United Nations, Afghanistan ranks 145th out of 156 countries and regions; according to the 2018 report released by Transparency International, Afghanistan ranks 177th out of 180 countries and regions in the world. It can be seen that Afghanistan is a relatively backward country in economy and culture. But it sits on trillions of dollars of metallic and non-metallic deposits such as tungsten, molybdenum and rare earths.

1. Tungsten ore

The tungsten ore producing areas and mineralization points are widely distributed in this country, but the three mining areas of Farah, Oruzgan and Baraghana are relatively large. Most of the tungsten deposits are skarn type, and the metallogenic age is mainly Paleogene, which is mainly distributed in the middle block of central Afghanistan in the southwest.

Farah-1 tungsten deposit: located in western Fara province, occurring in skarn and broken breccia near the Cretaceous-Paleocene granite, the W03 grade varies from 0.10% to 0.68%. The Farah-2 mining area is similar to the Farah-1 generation environment, it has two broken breccia zones, and the WO3 grade is 0.12%-1.86%.

Baraghana-1 tungsten deposit: located in southern Kandahar province, exposed Silurian strata, Oligocene granite plants invaded from the west, south and north, enveloping Silurian marble, and formed lenticular diopside skarn and garnet diopside skarn at its contact site. Ore ω (W03) averages 0.05%-0.06%, but some samples can reach 0.42%-0.50%.

Oruzgan tungsten deposit, located in the central Wunuzgan province, occurs in the contact zone between Upper Triassic Lower Jurassic marble and Oligocene granodiorite. The average thickness of the tungsten orebody is 16m. The grade of W03 is 0.48% and contains Mo (0.04%), Cu (0.5%) and Bi (0.3%).

two。 Molybdenum ore

The Kundalyan copper deposit belongs to skarn copper deposit with a Mo grade of 0.14%. Among them, the central part of the deposit, the Kaptarghor section, contains a large number of molybdenum reserves, and the Mo grade varies from 0.02% to 0.18%. If it is estimated according to ω (Mo) = 0.13%, the resource reserve of metal molybdenum is 127.3t.

The Ahankashan gold deposit is located in Badkes province in the northwest. Its main lithology is siltstone, sandstone, limestone and volcanic rock. Skarn zone and fracture zone are formed in the contact area between rock mass and surrounding rock. Quartz veins in the broken zone are often accompanied by disseminated lead, zinc, copper, molybdenum and other minerals. Ore ω (Au) 1.0g/t, up to 8g Mo t; ω (Cu) 0.2% 0.5%, up to 3.6%; ω (Pb) 0.5%; ω (Zn) 0.4%; ω (Mo) 0.07%.

3. Rare earth ore

According to China Tungsten online, the Khan Nahin extinct volcano in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan has rare earth reserves of about 1 million tons and a mining area of about 0.74 square kilometers, with a total value of up to 83 billion US dollars.

Network data show that the Hanaixin rare earth deposit is rich in light rare earth elements such as lanthanum, cerium and neodymium, which can rival the reserves of light rare earths in world-class rare earth mines such as Mount pass in California in the United States or Bayan Obo in Inner Mongolia in China. It could become the largest rare earth deposit in the world.

In addition, the Kanesin volcano in the south of the country may have reserves of 1.4 million tons of rare earth elements, 3.5 million tons of niobium and additional phosphorus, uranium and thorium.

4. Copper mine

The copper belt, which stretches from Kabul to Logar, is one of the giant proven copper deposits in the world, with 110km long and ore reserves of more than 0.6 per cent estimated at more than 1 billion tons.

5. Iron ore

The distribution of iron ore in Afghanistan is large, but the iron ore reserves in the HajjiGak area of Bamian province are huge, about 2 billion tons, with an average grade of 62 per cent. However, most of the mining area is located at a high altitude of 4000 meters, the transportation is inconvenient, and the development is very difficult.

6. Lithium ore

Lithium deposits in Afghanistan are mainly concentrated in Nangarhar and Oruzgan provinces. The Pasghushta lithium, tantalum, niobium and tin deposit in Nangarhar province has reserves of over 100 million tons, while the Taghawlor lithium and tin mine in Oruzgan province has reserves of over 100 million tons. In addition, the Jamanak lithium mine has nearly 30 million tons of reserves.

In addition to the above mineral deposits, Afghanistan also has metal resources such as lead, zinc, tin, nickel, mercury, rubidium, tantalum, bismuth, niobium and gold, as well as non-metallic mineral deposits such as sulfur, marble, emerald, lapis lazuli, natural gas and coal mines.

The reason why Afghanistan is rich in minerals is that the country is located at the intersection of the ancient Indian subcontinent and the Asian continent, where minerals from the depths of the earth's crust appear on the surface when the plates collide.