Dan Rather Reports: The Mother Lode, “The Way Forward”

Afghanistan may be one of the poorest countries in the world economically, but when it comes to precious metals it is one of the richest. The rush to mine this underground treasure is going full bore. The Afghans don’t have the technology to do it themselves, but there is no shortage of countries willing to step in and help. The winner of the first big contract was supposed to be an example of how the country would use it riches to get on its feet economically. But turning metals into money hasn’t exactly gone as planned. A Chinese company won the first bid — worth billions of dollars — but there are serious concerns that the winning bid came about as a result of a thirty million dollar bribe. Dan Rather Reports airs Tuesdays at 8pm and 11pm ET on HDNet.