All of which may explain why President Bush and major European powers had backed calls for an independent Kosovo, foremost among the U.K..
This was probably no coincidence for it was a British mineral exploration company that was responsible for the soil testing. Did they refer their findings to the British government and did they promise to back calls for an independent Kosovo in return for preferential treatment for British companies exploiting Kosovo’s mineral deposits?
If so it’s another example of how big money and government now work hand-in-hand. With political decisions being determined by profit as much as anything else.
No doubt the City of London will accrue benefits from this deal too. As it did over a century ago when Rothschild minions the Oppenheimers and their company Anglo-American began exploiting South Africa's gold and diamond deposits.

Valuing a find like that is something that can only be done with a massive amount of work and by a trained mining engineer. I'm at the other end of the market chain, I wholesale certain odd metals( the rare earths for example) Not my area at all. Bit like asking a PC salesman about the value of a piece of raw code. Right industry, wrong person.
Wouldn't be surprised to see any of the three though. Chrome, Albania has a lot of it.Ni-Co-Cu is found all over the world but it's a bitch to separate. Has to be a lot of it to make it worthwhile building the plant. Au, again, it's all over the place. Can be very tough to separate (1 g per tonne rock is what many work at).
As to the last lines of the piece: no, I don't think that such mining properties would be driving foreign policy. Values simply too small compared to the investment necessary to dig them up. Be like invading Wales for the coal.

¶ Saturday, February 23, 2008