Contract for Logar copper mine inked in Kabul
Mustafa Basharat – May 25, 2008 – 18:18
KABUL (PAN): The contract to extract Logar province Ainak copper mine was inked between Afghan government and a Chinese private company Minnesota Control Company (MCC) in Kabul on Sunday.
The Ainak copper mine was put to bid last year and MCC was announced winner in auction among 9 companies.
According to officials of mine ministries the Ainak copper mine located in 30 km southeast of Kabul in Logar province has over 12 million tons copper which is one of the biggest mine in the world.
According to the officials the mine was discovered in 1974 and was surveyed during 1978-79, but the mine was not extracted since then.
Eng. Muhammad Ebrahim Adil, minister for mine told a ceremony on this occasion that the bidding for Ainak copper mine was conducted by a delegation consisting ministers for commerce and economy, President’s advisor on mines, some deputies and him.
Adil said the company will invest $2.8 billion to extract the mine and will pay $808 million each year to Afghanistan government.
He added over 10000 Afghans will be directly provided with job opportunities and over 20000 will have indirect job opportunities.
He said the project is one of the biggest economic projects of the country and will have direct annual income of $400 million as tax to Afghan government.
Adil said the company will establish a power station with capacity of 400 mega watt at the cost of over $400 million and will construct a city for the workers of the company.
He said 200 mega watts will be used by the company and the rest will be distributed to residents in Logar province through ministry of water and energy.
He said the company will also establish a railway route from Hairatan port in northern Afghanistan to Torkham in eastern Afghanistan for the transportation of the mine at the cost of over $ 3 billion.
Adil added the company will extract 0.2 million tons mine each year and will export it after processing it in the country.
He said one of the plus point of Chinese company was that there were ready to process mine in Afghanistan.
The head of MCC hailed Afghan government for trusting his company and promised to start work on the project soon.
He said MCC was one of the biggest private companies in China and with over $35 billion investment is active in all five continents.
He said mine extraction will be launched keeping in mind the environmental hygiene and will use modern machineries.
Chinese ambassador to Afghanistan considered the project effective in strengthening Afghan-China relationships.
He said Afghanistan and China had good relations in the past, but with the implementation of this project it will further improve.