It is Bamiyan in the central highlands of Afghanistan and the beautiful panorama of serene views all around is spectacular. If you climb a few hundred meters to the top of the hill that has the historic Shahr-e Ghoghola perched on its peak, the magnificent canvass of colors and vistas unfold before your eyes. The idyllic beauty of this land and the phenomenal mineral wealth under its hills and mountains sit in a curious contrast to the material poverty of its inhabitants; peaceful people who have taken on the undying adversities of life in this unforgiving land for centuries and still frugality and contentment remain their maxim of life. The snow-capped mountains of Koh-e Baba lie to the south while the Bamiyan valley separate these range of mountains from the famous Bamiyan cliffs that lie to the north. Down in the middle, the Bamiyan River finds its way amongst the hills and mountains unaware of the hardships and pain that the people it feeds have gone through for all these years.    

Some of the richest mineral deposits in the world can be found beneath the soil and rocks of these very hills and mountains. The Ministry of Mines of Government of Afghanistan estimates that the Hajigak irons deposit here in Bamiyan contains close to 2 billion tones of high-grade ore. This vast reserve of quality iron ore with high concentration of iron is a bonanza for the interested foreign multi-national companies who are willing to take the risk of investing in the area and develop a large mining industry. The government of Afghanistan is in the process of finalizing bids from foreign and multi-national mining companies who are interested in developing Bamiyan’s Hajigak iron deposits. Recently, the US Geological Survey announced that the estimated worth of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth stand at 1 billion dollars. However, considering the rising prices of many minerals and precious elements in international markets and the existence of many other deposits which are yet to be discovered, the real worth of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth is many times higher. It can very well surpass the $3 billion figure put out by the government of Afghanistan. Iron, copper, gold, mercury, lead and rare earth elements such as tantalum and lithium are found in abundance throughout Afghanistan. There can be no doubt that the rich mineral wealth of Afghanistan can have the potential of transforming the country into a prosperous nation with thriving mining industries that provide jobs and livelihoods to millions.

Will such expectations of people of Afghanistan be realized; expectations that the natural wealth of the country be spent for their material betterment and for providing economic succor to millions of jobless mired in extreme poverty? The fact is that translating the mineral wealth of the country into solid improvements in the lives of poor people is no easy task to be undertaken by an endemically corrupt government in Afghanistan. Receiving bids from foreign multi-national companies and auctioning the mines and mineral deposits across the country, as it is what the government is doing now, are not the only requirements of achieving that objective. If the government of Afghanistan is serious in harnessing the strategic and long-term value of the mineral wealth of the country, there should be active efforts in place by the government to develop its own mining development capacities. Selling the mines and deposits to foreign multi-national companies is a welcome step but the profits that would go to the government and the poor people of Afghanistan would be only a fraction of the total profits from these mines and deposits. This deprives the government and the poor people of most of the profits that otherwise should go to them since they are the real owners of this wealth.

As a result of operation of foreign multi-national companies, such the China Metallurgical Group to which the Aynak Copper Deposit near Logar was sold for a price tag of $3.5 billion, most of the profit from these deposits would go to the private pockets of owners and shareholders of these companies and not the government and people of Afghanistan. Therefore, it is of utmost importance for the government to develop and acquire the required capacities to be able to work as partners to these companies and not merely as sellers of national wealth. This way, instead of earning only a small fraction of the profits arising from the upcoming mining industries, the government would consolidate its place as a primary developer and extractor of the mines and mineral deposits.         

Acquiring the required technologies, administrative and managerial capacities, finding the political will among the leaders of the country, widespread insecurity and insurgency and most importantly, purging the government of its crippling corruption are challenges in the way of indigenization of mining industries in Afghanistan. These are profoundly formidable challenges that few believe the corrupt, weak and inefficient government of Afghanistan can overcome any time soon. But on the other hand, selling the national wealth of the people and country to foreign multi-national companies, as it is being done now, also is not the correct way harnessing the natural wealth of the country. As said, the profits will line the private pockets of owners and shareholders of these multi-national companies and not the poor and miserable people of Afghanistan.

Destruction and Displacement    

The dark side of every mining development project is the environmental destruction and displacement of the local people that live in the vicinity of large mining projects as seen in other third world countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. This is a particularly real danger in Afghanistan too and in Bamiyan Valley where the poor local population is dependent on agriculture and the ecology of environment is extremely fragile. If the Hajigak Iron deposit in Bamiyan is developed into a large mining project by the foreign company that will win the bidding, then what awaits the people will be environmental destruction and displacement. Imagine the large volumes of toxic waste that will be produced and dumped in the valleys of Bamiyan as a result of operation of the future mining industry. The railways that would be constructed to run in the midst of valleys, hills and mountains will spew staggering volumes of deadly pollution into the air. The sustainable agriculture that has existed in the region for hundreds of years will be condemned to death. It is almost certain that if the mining projects start in the Bamiyan region, which will inevitably start, besides the environmental destruction, economically, the poor local people would stand little to gain from the very wealth that they are their real owners.