It's a very large resource, worth maybe $100 billion.
From Italy's PIME AsiaNews, March 15:
Taliban resume talks with the Chinese for copper mining in Mes Aynak
A Chinese delegation will travel to Kabul later this month to discuss the details. The original project is based on a deal signed in 2008 with the previous government. The site includes an ancient Buddhist city that is in danger of being lost. Afghanistan’s mineral resources are estimated at US$ 1 trillion.
Kabul (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Talks are underway to resume copper mining in Mes Aynak, in Afghanistan’s Logar region of Afghanistan, a spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Mines and Petroleum said.
The new Taliban government has asked China Metallurgical Group Corp (MCC Group) to pursue a project that was never completed for various reasons. The details will be discussed with a Chinese delegation set to travel to Afghanistan later this month.
The agreements signed in May 2008 between the then Western-backed Afghan government and the MCC Group, called for the Chinese side to pay US$ 400 million a year for a 30-year mining concession.
According to the Tolo News agency, the Chinese company invested more than US$ 2.5 billion in the first phase of the project, but was delayed by security reasons (Taliban carried out attacks and al-Qaeda was present), and because the site also contains a major archaeological site.
The mine is part of Afghanistan’s copper belt, some 30 km from the capital Kabul, and includes the ruins of a city dating back 2,000 years when Buddhism was the local religion....
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