Delay in mine project shadows hopes for Afghan economy

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/05/21/191854/delay-in-mine-project-shadows.html



Animal bones recovered from the ancient ruins on the Aynak mine site have been dyed green by copper leaching into them from the surrounding soil and rock. The Afghan copper mine is one of the richest in the world.

Delay in mine project shadows hopes for Afghan economy
By Jay Price | McClatchy Foreign Staff
Posted on Tuesday, May 21, 2013



KABUL, Afghanistan — The giant copper mine that the Afghan government has made the centerpiece of its plans for building an economy nearly from scratch is at least five years behind schedule and the state-owned Chinese company that won the bidding has missed key deadlines in its still-secret contract with the Afghan government and is trying to renegotiate the deal, according to several officials and observers inside and outside the Mining Ministry.

The Mes Aynak mine in Logar province, about 25 miles south of Kabul, was celebrated as the biggest investment in Afghan history when it was announced in 2007. China Metallurgical Group Corp., a Beijing-based conglomerate, signed a deal valued at about $3 billion for 30-year rights to mine the site, which is thought to contain the second-richest unexploited copper deposit in the world, an amount equal to more than one-third of the copper reserves in all of China.

China Metallurgical Group was supposed to begin mining this year, but it’s done hardly any of the preliminary work required, including basic planning and a major feasibility study that’s now overdue, said several people familiar with the contract, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity because of the delicate politics surrounding the mine.

With the construction of required infrastructure awaiting the approval of those studies and other paperwork, mining is at least five years in the future, and probably much farther off, mining experts say.