Rare earth element mineralogy, geochemistry, and preliminary resource assessment of the Khanneshin carbonatite complex, Helmand Province, Afghanistan

A Major Light Rare-Earth Element (Lree) Resource in the Khanneshin Carbonatite Complex, Southern Afghanistan

“…The estimated total resource (1.29 Mt) is almost an order of magnitude greater than the current, annual tonnage (134,000 t) of LREE 2 O 3 consumed worldwide (Humphries, 2011). Moreover, it is consistent with our estimation of LREE 2 O 3 resources (1.37 Mt, Table 2), calculated in an area with similar spectral characteristics in the marginal central vent that overlaps and extends beyond the Soviet-defined zone (Tucker et al, 2011a). Both estimates comport well with the probabilistic estimate of 1.4 Mt of undiscovered REE resources in all of south Afghanistan (Peters et al, 2007).…”

“…Most importantly, in the critical zone of LREE enrichment, ankerite alvikite and carbonatite dikes of the central vent were fully crystalline before the mineralized barite-strontianite alvikites, rich in LREE, were emplaced above them ( Fig. A1B) (Tucker et al, 2011a). These LREE-enriched alvikites are intruded by fluorine-and phosphorus-rich carbonatite dikes which may be the plumbing for the upper alvikite section.…”

“…3E, F); taeniolite (KLiMg 2 Si 4 O 10 F 2 ) is present as a rare accessory mineral. Of the type 2 dikes rich in fluorine, the general sequence of LREE-Sr-Ba mineralization: Sr-LREE-Ca-Na rich carbonates (khanneshite-(Ce)) → Ca-REE fluorocarbonates (bastnäsite-(Ce)) → Ca-LREE hydrated carbonate (calkinsite-(Ce)) (Tucker et al, 2011a). The phosphorus-rich igneous dikes contain subhedral crystals of carbocernaite, and interstitial apatite, together with parisite-(Ce) of secondary origin ( 3B, C).…”

The Political Economy of Rare Earth Elements

“…Afghan mineral resources are estimated to be worth one trillion US dollars (Risen, 2010;Najafizada & Rupert, 2010) and the total value of all extractive resources, including oil and gas reserves, may be three trillion (Najafizada, 2011). These resources include an estimated 1.5 million metric tons of high grade REE (Peters et al, 2011;Tucker et al, 2011a). Following the 2001 invasion, the US imposed the legal regime to guarantee private ownership, investor's rights, and free trade on Afghans with relative ease.…”

Rich Resource Exploitations, Resource Curses, and Resource Wars

“…Numerous such salt-laden dry lakes occur around the country in the provinces of Herat, Takhar, Ghazni, Nimroz, and others. In fact the US military at one point was touting Afghanistan as the "Saudi Arabia of lithium" (Anonymous, n.d.b,c;Medlin and Demas, 2011;Risen, 2010b;Tucker et al, 2011).…”