Govt to call for tenders for 68 mines across Afghanistan

Afghan Ministry of Mines and Petroleum said on Thursday that of 108 mines in 23 provinces, the High Economic Council has approved the launch of a tender process for 68 of these mines.

Minister of Mines and Petroleum Haroon Chakhansuri said 800 million AFs will be invested in these mines.

According to Chakhansuri, the annual revenue generation from these mines will be between 150 and 170 million AFs and 3,000 jobs will be created.

“Mines with a high income will be focused on. The mineral extraction process will take place in three parts, first small mines after that mid-size mines and at the end large mines,” stated Chakhansuri.

He also said that they will start work on the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project by the end of the month but did not provide further details.

Meanwhile, investors said that wide-spread corruption in government and the presence of armed groups are challenges facing the mining industry.

International organizations and the government also said that illegal extraction of minerals from mines is a substantial source of income for armed groups.

“Private sector is willing to invest in mining but the government should pay attention to our demands. We need the mines and have the capacity to extract the minerals,” said Abdul Nasir Reshtia, head of the association of steel factories.

In 2007 the United States Geological Service did a study and discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan, far beyond any previously known reserves.

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 eventually be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world.

At the time, an internal Pentagon memo, for example, stated that Afghanistan could become the “Saudi Arabia of lithium,” a key raw material in the manufacture of batteries.

However, the industry has not only been dogged by corruption but it is also dominated by warlords and insurgents and largely goes unregulated, and under-developed.