rare metal

Today or yesterday a convoy for afghanistan packing humvee's and militairy supply's was attacked succesfully by only 30 fighters. Like usually attacking the material dependency's of an oppressor makes a huge impression.

It made me wonder, i related (somewhat suddenly as i hadn't yet perceived that militairy need(1)) the nato trying to absorb georgia could well have a to do with the war in afghanistan.
Okay that seemed to make sense from a militairy pov. , but i didn't get the economics.
It would be so easy to think of a cheaper way to protect an oilpipeline, i just cudn't wholly get it.
So i wondered... uranium?? no there isn't in afghanistan, mining?? perhaps iridium lithium? , i assume there should be a little, but never heard it mention in the context. Except some primitive gemmining i may have never heard of any mining in afghanistan at all. Noone ever stressed in the discussions there would be huge quantities of even iron or anything, soo.. well i googled.

The first hit was very revealing, http://www.bgs.ac.uk/AfghanMinerals/mininfo.htm

Now that is an interesting geology, there is evrything, even lots of coal, gems, piles! more then i expected knowing what is extracted. And evrything else, rare earths, lithium, rare metals, gold, a pile of copper, iron, and....

surprise surprise.. yellow uranite.

k then. with so little populace i know what fortunes they are seeking now.
I suppose considering the geology that is supposed to be extremely fractured, the methods of excavation would tend to be disastrous (first rate and more second rate rare deposits in daymining ruins the landscape ) .. the lesser people, the lesser concern? Fascinating geology really.

(1) i did consider georgia a strategical nato investment (a militairy spending) , for the region yet had not identified an acute relation with afghanistan..