The mining sector in Afghanistan, if boomed properly, can serve as a hope to boost Afghan economy to a large extent. Many years of instability and wars have influenced Afghan economy negatively, except for the last some years. The involvement of international community in Afghanistan has generated some hopes that Afghanistan may be able to stand on its own in the times to come. However, it would need to learn to live on its own. The withdrawal of international security forces from the country by the end of 2014 may raise various challenges for Afghanistan as far as the financial support and economic stability are concerned. Nonetheless, the country has to rely on its own resources and among them the mining sector can, undoubtedly, play a tremendous role.
Highlighting the same fact the former minister of mines and petroleum Ibrahim Adil, in one of his recent interviews with Pajhwok Afghan News, said that the mining sector in Afghanistan has greater potential that can generate one million jobs for Afghan youth. This may seem like a very optimistic statement, but the reality shows that it is really possible. According to certain calculations by US Afghanistan may possess mineral deposits worth USD 1 trillion, which is really very large and includes the minerals like gold, iron ore, uranium and precious stones including emeralds. Unearthing all these mineral resources and processing them so that they are ready for use or export would definitely require large factories and a large number of human resources, which would provide the unemployed youth of the country an opportunity to avail employment.
Ibrahim Adil also mentioned that the country’s rich mine sector would ensure bolstering each and every sector of the country during the next 20 years but a proper administration was needed to protect the sector. It is really very imperative to understand that the large mineral reservoirs that remain untouched in our country can solve a large number of our problems but we are not able to avail such opportunity and mostly the way we administer it or plan to administer it is responsible for it.
Regarding the legislation for the mining sector Ibrahim Adil told in his interview that the current law draft, which is in the parliament for debate, contains imperfections and nonprofessional and inexpert individuals were involved to prepare the draft of the new law. He also highlighted the need that the existing mining law should not be changed or replaced with the new one as the current legal draft of mining sector is better than the drafts in the neighboring countries such as Iran, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Pakistan and matches the standards of European countries mining drafts.
It is really necessary that the legislative and administrative mechanisms in the country must strive to formulate and pursue the laws and policies that are for the benefits of the country and that involve the consultations and advice from the technical and professional persons.
Ibrahim Adil, regarding the same issue, also warned against extraction of coal reservoirs in a nonprofessional way, saying that once a mine was excavated in illegal way then it would become difficult to rehabilitate it. He said most of the times fire erupted inside a coalmine due to unprofessional methods which cost human lives. Oil, gas and iron are among resources which do not need immediate extraction, he said, adding that “we need to pay attention to other resources that can easily be extracted such as coal and minerals.”
It is an undeniable fact that the natural resources of the country have yet to be unearthed and there have not been even very basic work done in this regard. So, everything has to be started right from the very inception and that would require a lot of hard work and dedication. Hopeful expectations in this regard have to be backed properly by determined and practical measures; otherwise intention may end up in smoke.
The mining sector is not just about taking the minerals out of the earth. It includes a complete development of an infrastructure. It involves complicated processes, machinery and latest technology. Most importantly, it requires a reliable and working transportation system that must be free of risk and must prove helpful in transporting heavy equipments and human resource to the mountainous areas where minerals are located. In addition, the same transportation system must transfer the minerals that are dug out to different plants for being refined and changed to usable conditions.
The mining sector also requires strong, cheap and reliable communication system that must remain undisturbed by the culprits. As a matter of fact, for the whole process, in order to reach to its final phase, a lot of investment and a decade or more of peaceful socio-political circumstances are required. While forming expectations about mining sector, it is necessary for the government officials to keep in considerations all these facts.
Definitely, generations of instability have incapacitated Afghanistan to work on these resources but at the same time it would require, at least a generation if not generations of stability to bring these resources in use. It is not impossible; neither the purpose of this article has been to promulgate pessimism about the circumstances. Its main objective has been to remind the people of Afghanistan and most importantly the Afghan authorities to analyze the socio-political and politico-economic conditions rationally and try to comprehend the challenges appropriately.
After the challenges are understood appropriately, measures can be carried out to find out proper solution of the challenges. It is really encouraging that there are expectations from the mining sector, but these expectations must not be converted to fantasies rather they should be changed to realities through prudence and positive attitude.