Mining in Afghanistan
Supporting new mining operations is at least part of the US strategy in Afghanistan. Mining rights will be a cash cow for the Government in Kabul and will increase global supplies of minerals for the global market. Here are some stories..
India will host investors’ meet on Afghanistan
India will get more intimately involved in Afghanistan’s stabilisation process by hosting a conference of regional investors.
Unlike the other conferences that take place around the world.. this conference will look at the investment opportunities in Afghanistan…
India, Pakistan and China will have a substantial economic stake in Afghanistan in the coming years. Kabul is poised to earn $500 million a year in transit fees from a pipeline originating from Turkmenistan and supplying gas to Pakistan and Afghanistan.
India has won the Hajigak iron ore mine, which officials say is the ‘jewel’ of Afghanistan’s mining sector. After winning three of four blocks on offer, it is looking at six petroleum blocks in northern Afghanistan and copper mines in four different parts of the country. China has won the lucrative Aenak copper mine, but faces the same problem as India and Pakistan: some regions are plagued by conflict and the others are placid.
Afghanistan Gold and Copper Mines Bidding: Six Indian Companies Shortlisted
Four Indian public sector companies along with two private players Monnet Ispat & Energy and Jindal Steel & Power are among the 25 companies shortlisted to invest in gold and copper mines in Badakhshan, Zarkashan, Balkhab and Shaida regions of Afghanistan…
Twenty-five bidders were selected out of 41 companies from India, USA, Canada, UK, UAE, Turkey, Australia and Afghanistan that had submitted expression of interest for investing in the mineral deposits, according to a press statement issued by Afghan’s ministry of mines.
India, Afghanistan sign MoU on iron and steel cooperation:
India and Afghanistan have signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in the iron and steel sector, New Delhi-based sources familiar with the development said Tuesday…
Hajigak lies some 80 miles west of Kabul in Bamyan province. Earlier studies revealed deposits containing 1.8 billion mt of iron ore with an average 64%-Fe content.
AFISCO’s bid for mining rights had included a proposal to build a 6.12 million mt/year steelworks in two phases of 3.06 million mt/year each, subject to the Afghan government providing supplies of coking coal and limestone.
Bounty of Rare Earths Discovered in Afghanistan
The new rare earth findings are a crown jewel of the USGS’s new, 2,000-page assessment of Afghanistan’s vast mineral bounty, which will be rolled out September 29 at the Afghan embassy in Washington, D.C. This new science, funded by the Pentagon’s Task Force for Business and Stability Operations, also characterizes 24 areas of economic interest, half a dozen of which are world-class mineral deposits in the northern two thirds of the country.
Vast deposits of copper and iron in the northeast near the nation’s capital, Kabul, are together worth hundreds of billions of dollars. The Afghanistan Ministry of Mines has already tendered an exploration lease for a copper prospect called Aynak, in Logar Province, and they plan to do the same for several additional sites in the coming months, including a massive iron ore deposit valued at $420 billion.