Q&A: Aynak and Mining in Afghanistan

Apr 2, 2013 | The World Bank
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Aynak is a large undeveloped copper resource, located about 40 km southeast of Kabul in Afghanistan’s Logar province.  After a competitive bidding process, the government of Afghanistan in 2007 awarded a 30-year lease to the Metallurgical Corporation of China (MCC, which then created the Afghan entity named MJAM) to explore the resource and submit a bankable feasibility study and associated environmental social impact assessment as next steps toward establishing a copper mine. International archaeologists brought to the attention of the Ministry of Mines the potential for important antiquities on the site and were instructed by the Ministry of Mines to begin assessment and excavation.