Hey! Let's spend billions of dollars in a wasteland for absolutely no reason! There's nothing here of value, we just want to bankrupt our nation for the fun of it. Nothing to see here.
:later:
Oh why look! A trillion dollars worth of minerals that we had no idea was here! Here's a detailed map of the entire fricking country that includes an in-depth analysis of exactly where all the minerals are that we had no idea were here. Well, since we're already here we'll just help ourselves. Thanks guys!