Afghan Copper

The Aynak mines are estimated to have 705 million tonnes of ores and an average copper content of 1.56 per cent, comprising 11 million tonnes of copper metal deposits. Jiangxi says it would buy at least 50 per cent of the copper concentrate products generated upon operation of the mine. The significance of this deal, the largest foreign direct investment in the history of Afghanistan, has been widely noted. When completed, the project is expected to generate nearly US $400 million annually for the Government in Kabul. This is nearly 40 per cent of the Afghan government’s revenues. For a country that finds it so hard to mobilise internal resources, the Aynak project is a big boon. Since there is no power supply in the region, China plans to build a 400 MW coal fired plant to run the Aynak mines. The construction and operation of the power plant is likely to generate 5,000 jobs, 90 per cent of which are being promised to the Afghans. The total cost of China’s copper venture is estimated to be about US$3.5 billion. Its impact is bound to be much larger than all the aid that trickled into Afghanistan since the ouster of the Taliban in 2001.

Train to Kabul

The Aynak project involves a lot more than a resource-hungry China tapping Afghan copper. It is also about developing a transport corridor deep into Afghanistan. After all coal must be moved in to run the power plant and the copper ore shipped out. This is where the audacity of Chinese plans for Aynak comes into full view. Media reports talk about China’s plans to build a rail link between Afghanistan and western China through Central Asia. Most countries would have backed off from this daunting task. China, however, now revels in realising the seemingly impossible.

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