The Karzai administration opened bids on billions of dollars worth of copper and gold deposits in four areas of occupied Afghanistan.
The Afghan Ministry of Mines invited foreign transnationals to bid on multiple contracts to unearth copper and gold buried in Badakhshan, Ghazni and Herat provinces and a fourth area that spans both Balkh and Sar e Pul provinces. Companies will have until March 9 to submit preliminary bids and a preferred bidder will be selected in 2012.
Mr Wahidullah Shahrani mines minister of Afghanistan said that the value of the deposits was in the billions.
Geologists have known for decades about Afghanistan’s vast deposits of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and other prized minerals including rare earth minerals used in mobile phones, hybrid car batteries, the arms industry and wind turbines.
The US Defence Department put a mind boggling USD 1 trillion price tag on the vast mineral reserves but the Afghan minister said other geological assessments and industry reports estimate the nation’s mineral wealth at USD 3 trillion or more.
Mr Shahrani said that he and his fellow ministers plan to sell the rights for up to 5 mines every year until 2014 when most occupation forces are scheduled to go home.
Afghan officials approved a multimillion dollar contract in December 2010 to mine gold in Dushi district of Baghlan province. It was the first mining project in Afghanistan backed by private investors from the West, who pledged USD 50 million for the project.
The Afghan government gave investors from India and Canada permission last month to mine an estimated 1.8 billion tons of iron ore in Bamiyan province. Meanwhile 19 were killed by a road bomb blast in Helmond province.
The official said that a minibus struck the bomb while driving in Sangin district, triggering an explosion that killed 19 Afghan civilians. The blast follows twin bombings on Shi’ite Muslims in Kabul that left 60 dead and sparked fears that attacks in Afghanistan might be taking on a sectarian dimension.
(Sourced from www.morningstaronline.co.uk)
