Jiangxi Copper Group involved in the development of Afghanistan, Aina Ke Copper Project started
2009-7-15 Source: Dajiang Wang - Jiangxi Daily
July 10 Congjiang Copper Group was informed by the China Metallurgical Group Corporation and Jiangxi Copper Corporation to jointly develop copper projects in Afghanistan Aina Ke, July 9 officially under construction.
It is understood that Aina Ke copper from the Afghan capital, Kabul, about 35 kilometers, is considered not yet developed the world’s second-largest copper mine. 7.05,1.56%,1100, The total amount of proven resources, the amount of 705 million tons of ore, with an average 1.56% copper, copper metal content of 11 million tons for the large copper deposit. 20086, In June 2008, China Metallurgical Group Corporation and Jiangxi Copper Group, the investment consortium composed of copper in the development of bid victory. ,50% The project put into operation, the output of not less than 50% of the copper concentrate products will be in accordance with international practice and the same international prices of copper sold to Jiang.
Source: Google translation of Chinese report at Jiangxi Copper Corporation
Posts Tagged ‘China’
Copper mine project underway
Sunday, November 22nd, 2009China’s interest in Pakistan rail links
Sunday, September 27th, 2009In an article at Asia Times Online, Syed Fazl-e-Haider writes about co-operation between China and Pakistan, including plans to extend the Khyber Pass line and build the Spin Boldak line. There is also discussion of a direct China - Pakistan railway.
Chinese shun Pakistan exodus
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China has also shown interest in early laying a track between the Pakistan border town of Torkham and Jalalabad in Afghanistan, as the Chinese want to use the Pakistan Railways network to transport their goods and equipment for the development of copper mines and various other projects in Afghanistan. Separately, Pakistan Railways has completed a feasibility study for a rail section between Chaman, in Balochistan, and Kandahar in Afghanistan that is part of a proposed link across Afghanistan to Turkmenistan.
Source: Asia Times Online, 2009-09-11
Mazar-i-Sharif railway work to start by end of year
Friday, August 14th, 2009A report from a Chinese news agency saying work is to start imminently on extending the Uzbekistan - Hayratan railway line by 60 km to Mazar-i-Sharif.
Unfortunately the website of the Ministry for Commerce and Industries is “under maintenance” so I can’t check the source. The Rah-e-Nejat also has a website, but I can’t find the story using Google translate.
In the past there have been reports claiming that the German military is keen to see this line built, for bringing in supplies to German forces in Afghanistan. Presumably the line would be built to 1520 mm gauge, for compatability with the Uzbek rail network.
Construction of first railway in Afghanistan to begin within 4 months
KABUL, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) — Work for the construction of first Afghan railway to begin within the next four months, a local newspaper reported Thursday.
The essential project, costing 120 million U.S. dollars, would connect Uzbekistan to Mazar-e-Sharif city in north Afghanistan, the daily Rah-e-Nejat quoted a press release of Ministry for Commerce and Industries as reporting.
Afghanistan’s border town Hairatan is connected with Uzbekistan and the work for 60 km railway would begin from Hairatan possibly in this December, the newspaper further said.
A technical team from Uzbekistan would soon visit Afghanistan in connection with the project which is financed by the Asian Development Bank, the newspaper added.
Source: Xinhua 2009-08-14
(thanks to Michael G Erickson for spotting this)
Aynak copper mine railway
Sunday, March 15th, 2009There have been some slighly vague news reports suggesting that the railway from Iran to Herat may open during March. I’ve not seen anything definite yet though, and still haven’t seen any pictures of construction works.
Meanwhile, China’s thirst for copper could hold key to Afghanistan’s future is a March 8 2009 report from the South Asian News Agency about the Aynak copper mine project: China must complete an ambitious set of infrastructure projects, including Afghanistan’s first national railway, as part of the deal.
Moreover, China must deliver the infrastructure projects that helped it snag the deal over six rivals, including Phelps Dodge Corp., which was acquired by Phoenix-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. in 2007.
These include an onsite copper smelter, a $500 million generating station to power the project and augment Kabul’s electricity supply, a coal mine to fuel the power station, a groundwater system, roads, new homes, hospitals and schools for mine workers and their families, and a railway line from the country’s northern border with Uzbekistan to its southeastern border with Pakistan.
The deal, Ashraf said, is structured so that by the seventh year, the entire work force will be Afghan. Beginning in 2010, 60 Afghan engineering students a year will study in China, he said, adding that Chinese language courses have begun at Kabul University.
Employment projections vary, but there’s general agreement that as many as 10,000 workers could be hired at Aynak and the coal mine in central Afghanistan, which the Jalrez Valley road project will link to the copper field. The railway will need thousands more.
Source: South Asian News Agency 2009-03-08
Studies for two Pakistan Railways extensions
Wednesday, February 11th, 2009In November 2008 Hail Ghulam Ahmad Bilour, Pakistan’s Railways Minister, told the National Assembly that two studies for railways were being considered.
One plan is to revive the long-standing proposal to extend the Pakistan Railways network by about 10 miles from the current terminus at Chamman to reach Spin Boldak across the border in Afghanistan, providing a railhead for Kandahar.
The other plan is much more substantial, being a 662 km link from Havelian in Pakistan to China via the Khunjerab Pass, which reaches an altitude of 4700 m. However it had been said in September that this route was not commercially feasible.
Pak-China rail link pre-feasibility study completed, National Assembly told
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Bilour told the house in response to a question raised by MNAs including Fauzia Wahab, Muhammad Asad Khan, Yasmeen Rehman and Shereen Arshad Khan, that the PC-I for Chaman Spinbuldak (Afghanistan bordering town) rail link was completed with the cost of Rs 417 million in June 2004 and the project was to be executed by M/s Railcop, however, work could not be started due to non-issuance of NOC by Afghanistan government. The revised cost of PC-l is now assessed Rs 943.00 million, he added.He said that the Pak-China Rail link pre-feasibility study has been completed through two consulting firms M/s L.L.F of German-Austria and M/s Don fang Electric Corporation (DEC) of China and following route has been recommended for detailed feasibility. Havelian-AbbotAbad - Batagram - Thakot-Bridge-Bèsham-Pattan -Dassu-Chillas - Gilgit-Karimabad - Sost-Mintaka Pass. The length of this route is 662 km and tentative cost is US $10.237 billion to be completed in 15 years, he informed.
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Source: Business Recorder, 2008-11-11
There are more details of the feasibility studies in the February 2007 Asia Times Online article China-Pakistan rail link on horizon, by Syed Fazl-e-Haider. This says:
As a part of its development plan for its transport and communications network, Pakistan Railways has completed a feasibility study of the Chaman-Kandahar section for laying railway tracks between Pakistan and Turkmenistan through Afghanistan.
Source: Asia Times Online, 2007-02-24
China - Kabul rail plan in the Daily Telegraph
Saturday, October 18th, 2008China extends influence into Central Asia, says a report about railway building in China by Malcolm Moore in the Daily Telegraph of 18 October 2008.
The move will connect Xinjiang to railway lines as far off as Moscow and Tehran and a direct route is also being planned through the Hindu Kush to Kabul. The lines will open Central Asia to Chinese goods and companies, and will serve as conduits for oil and petrol to be brought back. Source: Daily Telegraph 2008-10-18 (from the printed version - the online version has minor differences)
This Afghan line is presumbly related to the copper mine project. A schematic map in the printed version of the newspaper shows a railway continuing onwards from Kabul to Tehran. Other plans have suggested a line from the existing railhead at Hayratan to Herat, then to Iran over the line which is now under construction.
Routes from Afghanistan to China
Sunday, September 28th, 2008There is a a letter in the August 2008 issue of Railway Gazette International from railway consultant David Brice, who has worked in Afghanistan providing advice on transport.
He considers the options for the railway planned to run from the Aynak copper mine to China via Dushanbe and Kashgar, concluding that standard gauge would be the best choice, and “the opportunity to avoid tedious gauge changes must not be passed up.”
China’s role in Afghan copper project
Wednesday, September 10th, 2008In ‘Just World News’, journalist Helena Cobban writes about China’s role in the Aynak copper mine project. The plans include a rail link to China.
China buys in to Iraqi, Afghan end-games
Posted by Helena Cobban at August 30, 2008 01:35 PM
…If the Chinese really are also going to build a rail line that comes from western China, through Tajikstan, down through Afghanistan (including Aynak,) and through Pakistan to Karachi, then that is extremely significant.
I think the China-Tajikstan connector is already underway…
But the whole project, when completed, will have huge benefits:
- for China, in its continuing drive to bring economic development to its far-west regions,
- for Tajikstan and the other landlocked former-Soviet Stans, who have pretty good Soviet-era railway systems– but so far, most of them connect to the outside world only through Russia. This new connector would give them new outlets, to both China and the Arabian Sea.
- for Pakistan, which gets access to a whole new hinterland and trading bloc there in Stanistan, and finally–
- for Afghanistan, which gets its first ever long distance rail line– and one that connects, moreover, to such a lot of other interesting and potentially lucrative places. It also thereby gets a way to start exporting not just the massive amounts of copper said to exist in Aynak but all the rest of its currently barely scratched-at wealth of mineral resources.
Win-win-win all round, I’d say. And not just because I’m a committed ferrophile.
Read the full article at ‘Just World News’
Afghan bogies cancelled
Thursday, October 25th, 2007The IANS news story of October 24 Pakistan forfeits $500,000 from Chinese firm says
A Chinese firm that was prevented by Beijing from supplying 300 railway bogies [meaning bogie passenger coaches] that Pakistan had contracted for has lost the Rs.30 million (about $50,000) guarantee money it had paid toward the Rs.1.6 billion contract after Islamabad forfeited the deposit.
Pakistan railway ministry officials were ’shocked’ to learn that the firm that had been awarded the contract ‘was forcibly stopped by the Chinese government from delivering the consignment’, The News said Wednesday.
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The contract for the bogies, meant for developing rail links with Afghanistan, has now gone to an Iranian firm.
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