MES AYNAK, Afghanistan (AP) – Ancient Buddha statues sit in meditative serenity in caves carved into the cliffs of rural Afghanistan.  Hundreds of meters below is what is believed to be the largest copper deposit in the world.
Afghanistan’s Taliban leaders are pinning their hopes on Beijing to turn this rich vein into revenue to save the money-starving country amid crippling international sanctions.
Fighters standing guard on the rocky slope may have once thought of destroying the Buddhas with terracotta.  Two decades ago, when the hardline Islamist Taliban came to power, they sparked global outrage by blowing up giant Buddha statues in other parts of the country, calling them pagan symbols to be eradicated.
But now they intend to keep the remains of the Mes Aynak copper mine.  That’s the key to freeing up billions in Chinese investment, said Hakumullah Mubariz, the Taliban’s security chief at the site, looking at the remains of a monastery built by first-century Buddhist monks.
“Protecting them is very important to us and the Chinese,” he said.
Mubariz previously commanded a Taliban battle unit in the surrounding mountains fighting US-backed Afghan forces.  When these troops capitulated last year, his men rushed to secure the site.  “We knew it would be important for the country,” he said.
The spectacular overthrow of the Taliban shows the strong charm of Afghanistan’s untapped mining sector.  Successive authorities saw the country’s $ 1 trillion in mineral wealth as the key to a prosperous future, but none were able to develop it amid ongoing war and violence.  Now, many countries, including Iran, Russia and Turkey, are looking to invest, bridging the gap left by the chaotic US withdrawal.
But Beijing is the most powerful.  At Mes Aynak, he could become the first major force to undertake a large-scale Taliban-controlled project in Afghanistan, potentially redesigning the geopolitical map of Asia.
first priority
In 2008, Hamid Karzai’s management signed a 30-year contract with a Chinese consortium called MCC to extract high-quality copper from Mes Aynak.  Studies show that the site contains up to 12 million tons of mineral.
But the project committed to logistical and contract problems and never exceeded some initial test lines before it stopped when Chinese personnel left in 2014 due to continuing violence.
A few months after the Taliban took control of Kabul in August, consolidating power in the country, the group’s newly-appointed Minister of Mines and Oil, Shahbuddin Dilawar, urged his staff to re-engage Chinese state-owned companies.
Ziad Rashidi, the ministry’s director of foreign relations, approached the consortium of MCC, China Metallurgical Group Corporation and Jiangxi Copper Ltd.  Dilawar has had two virtual meetings with MCC in the past six months, according to company and ministry officials.  He urged them to return to the mine, on terms unchanged from the 2008 contract.
A technical committee from the MCC is expected in Kabul in the coming weeks to address the remaining obstacles.  Relocating objects is the key.  But the MCC is also seeking to renegotiate the terms, particularly to reduce taxes and cut the royalty rate by 19.5% to almost half the rate owed to the government per tonne of copper sold.
“Chinese companies see the current situation as ideal for them. There is a lack of international competitors and a lot of support from the government,” Rashidi said.
China’s ambassador to Afghanistan said talks were ongoing, but nothing more.
Acquisition of rare minerals is the key for Beijing to maintain its position as a world productive power.  Although it has not recognized the Taliban government, China has distanced itself from the international community by demanding the release of Afghan assets and has maintained its diplomatic mission in Kabul.
For Afghanistan, the Mes Aynak contract could generate $ 250-300 million a year in government revenue, a 17% increase, as well as $ 800 million in contract fees, according to government and corporate officials.  This is a significant amount as the country faces widespread poverty, which has been exacerbated by economic shortages following the Biden government’s freeze on Afghan assets and international organizations cut off donor funds.  Some have started again since then.
EMPERY CEMETERY
In Mes Aynak, a 2,000-year-old Buddhist city sits uncomfortably next to a potential financial machine.  Afghanistan’s turbulent modern history has hampered both archeological exploration and mining development.
Discovered in the 1960s by French geologists, the site is believed to have been an important station along the Silk Road since the first centuries AD.
After the Soviet invasion in the late 1970s, the Russians dug tunnels to explore the copper deposit.  the cavernous holes are still visible.  They were later used as an al Qaeda hideout and at least one was bombed by the United States in 2001.
Subsequently, the looters looted many antiquities from the site.  However, archaeologists who came in 2004 conducted a partial excavation, uncovering the remains of a huge complex, including four monasteries, ancient copper workshops and a citadel.  It became clear that the area was an important Buddhist settlement, a crossroads for merchants from the west and pilgrims from afar, even China.
To the shock of technocrats not a Taliban in his own ministry, Dilawar has vowed to save the site and told the MCC director in Beijing that it was an important part of Afghanistan’s history, according to two officials present at a virtual meeting. .
Reject open pit mining plans that would completely destroy the site.  The underground mining alternative was considered very expensive by MCC.  The Ministry of Culture has undertaken to present a plan for the transfer of the remains, most likely to the Kabul Museum.
“We have already transported some (artifacts) to the capital and are working to transfer the rest so that mining work can begin,” Delaware told the Associated Press.
While the ministry is optimistic that an agreement can be reached, MCC officials are cautious and pragmatic.
They did not speak to the AP on file, citing sensitivities surrounding the talks as international sanctions continue to bar trade with the Taliban.
They expressed concern about the feasibility of other contractual obligations, including the construction of a railway to the Pakistan-Torkham border, a coal-fired power plant and community facilities such as a hospital and schools.
Another issue is how to compensate the residents of three villages near Mes Ainak that were liquidated a decade ago.
Mullahs Mera Jan, a 70-year-old local elder, said he was still waiting for the funds promised to him by ministry officials after he was forced to leave his village, Wally Baba.
However, he also hopes that mining will start soon.  The villagers were promised 3,000-4,000 direct and 35,000 indirect jobs.  The men from his village are at the top of the recruitment list.
OPEN FOR JOBS
In the labyrinthine halls of the ministry, optimistic investors stand in line, documents ready to jeopardize Afghanistan’s untapped mineral wealth, including large deposits of iron, precious stones and – possibly – lithium.
The door to Rashid’s office is being knocked on these days by Russians, Iranians, Turks and, of course, the Chinese.
“Everyone is in a hurry to invest,” he said.  The Chinese interest is “extraordinary,” he said.  Rashidi also contacted China’s CNPCI to renew an oil exploration contract at Amu Darya near the border with Turkmenistan, which expired in 2018.
Dozens of small-scale contracts have been handed over to local investors, many of whom have joint ventures with international companies, mainly Chinese and Iranian.
The ministry’s revenue increased exponentially, from 110 million afghanis ($ 1.2 million) a year before the Taliban takeover, to 6 billion afghanis ($ 67 million) in the six months since the Taliban came to power, according to the report. with documents seen by the AP.  Most of them, however, appear to come from more aggressive taxation, as the Taliban have merged their informal tax economy with that of the government.  Apart from coal, it is not clear whether real mining production has increased.
Ironically, it was the Taliban who barred work at Mes Aynak for more than a decade.
An MCC official recalled how the road leading to the mine was loaded with IEDs targeting Afghan forces and NATO allies.  An entire Afghan regiment was guarding Chinese engineers at the site complex.  Mubariz, now the security chief, said he remembered watching them from the mountains planning attacks.
The MCC official said that when the Taliban hosts told him that they had restored security so that work could continue, he replied jokingly: “Weren’t you the one who attacked us?”
The men, with machine guns around their necks, laughed too.