Wait, I forget why we went into Afghanistan in the first place....

U.S. Identifies Mineral Riches in Afghanistan - Economic Boon is Seen (NYT, 6/14/10)

The United States has discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan, far beyond any previously known reserves and enough to fundamentally alter the Afghan economy and perhaps the Afghan war itself, according to senior American government officials.
The previously unknown deposits - including huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals like lithium - are so big and include so many minerals that are essential to modern industry that Afghanistan could be transformed into of of the most important mining centers in the world, the United States officials believe.
An internal Pentagon memo, for example, states that Afganistan could become the 'Saudia Arabia of lithium'.... The vast scale of Afghanistan's mineral wealth was discovered by a small team of Pentagon officials and American geoligists. The Afghan government and President Hamid Karzai were recently briefed, American officials said.

So much for sovereignty.