Afghanistan cancels contract to US gold and copper miner
2019-12-02 16:54:23 [Print]
President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani cancelled the contracts held by the Turkish Afghan Mining Company ("TAMC") and the Afghan Gold and Mineral Company ("AGMC"), which allowed them to exploit the Badakhshan gold mine and the Balkhab copper mine in the northern Sar-e-Pul province.
Both TAMC and AGMC are JVs formed by US-based Central Asian Resources Limited, better known as CENTAR.
The country's economic council, which is chaired by the president, made the decision arguing the companies have not fulfilled their contractual commitments.
However, in a letter sent to the Large-Scale Mining Committee of Afghanistan to which Khaama Press got access, TAMC and AGMC said that they have fulfilled four key obligations in their contracts. The one thing the miners haven't done is the provision of a performance bond. In their correspondence, they say this is due to the unknown political situation in Afghanistan, where people are still waiting for the delayed results of the September 28th presidential election. Within this context, TAMC and AGMC asked for a six-month extension to provide the bond.
The mining companies involved in the projects since the signing of the final contract in October 2018 have said that they had planned to start exploring before the end of 2019.
The Balkhab copper project is an early-stage exploration project covering a 500-square-kilometre area. It is marked by occurrences of sulfide and oxide copper ores, the latter of which has a history of mining and processing at the site that stretches back an estimated 3,000 years.
Both TAMC and AGMC are JVs formed by US-based Central Asian Resources Limited, better known as CENTAR.
The country's economic council, which is chaired by the president, made the decision arguing the companies have not fulfilled their contractual commitments.
However, in a letter sent to the Large-Scale Mining Committee of Afghanistan to which Khaama Press got access, TAMC and AGMC said that they have fulfilled four key obligations in their contracts. The one thing the miners haven't done is the provision of a performance bond. In their correspondence, they say this is due to the unknown political situation in Afghanistan, where people are still waiting for the delayed results of the September 28th presidential election. Within this context, TAMC and AGMC asked for a six-month extension to provide the bond.
The mining companies involved in the projects since the signing of the final contract in October 2018 have said that they had planned to start exploring before the end of 2019.
The Balkhab copper project is an early-stage exploration project covering a 500-square-kilometre area. It is marked by occurrences of sulfide and oxide copper ores, the latter of which has a history of mining and processing at the site that stretches back an estimated 3,000 years.
Copper Conc. TC 25%min CIF China
Unit:USD/mt
China copper concentrate producers' sales to production ratio statistics by province by month
Unit: %
