In my opinion, they want Mes Aynak to set a precedent -- to be a model for resource extraction of the one trillion dollars plus of valuable minerals like oil, copper, lithium and iron buried underneath Afghanistan.
"We are looking at seven million customers in the first five years and this is a very conservative figure, " said Etisalat senior vice-president Obaid Saeed Bin Mes'har.
Mes Aynak is a sprawling, mountainous, 9, 800-acre site studded with artifacts that archaeologists believe are as significant as the Bamiyan Buddhas, as well as the remains of civilizations that stretch back to the time of Alexander the Great.