1. Afghan Minerals Group (AMG) was granted a license to explore the Shaida copper deposit, in the province of Herat, in western Afghanistan.(20121217). Exploration Licence Area: 250km²

Afghan Gold and Minerals, Afghan Minerals Group, and Turkish-Afghan Mining Co. had been picked from a shortlist of 25 bidders to explore and start developing the Balkhab, Shaida and Badakhshan projects respectively.(20121207)


2. The extraction project of one the biggest copper mine’s in western Herat province, was signed with Silk Road Mining, a private construction company with an amount of 21.3 million US dollar initial investment. The company received the documents of the mines by senior officials, acting minister of finance Mohammad Hamayon Qaumi, acting minister of mines and petroleum, and the provincial governor Abdul Qayum Rahimi. Minister, Nehan said that the process of the project would take about three years. Samiuddin Seddiqi, executive director of the company has thanked the government for the cooperation in regards, saying that thousands of people would be hired on jobs through this project. (20180919)

Silk Road’s Chairman:
Sam Sidiqi (20190924)
Silk Road CEO:
Christopher Logan (20190924)
co-founders of Silk Road Mining
Sam Sidiqi and Christopher Logan
 

Legal advisors:

McCarthy Tétrault LLP is acting as legal counsel to Silk Road Mining. Hogan Lovells US LLP and DLA Piper Australia are acting as legal counsel to the Government of Afghanistan.

The termination of two major mining contracts – for Balkhab copper deposit in Sar-e-Pul province and for a gold deposit in Badakshan -- was ordered during a High Economic Council. The reasons were that the companies could not fulfill the commitments they made during the bidding process. The main issue was financial commitment; therefore, the High Economic Council terminated the contracts. On October 15, 2016, the Afghan Gold and Mineral Company was awarded mining rights to the Balkhab copper mine in Sar-e-Pul province, and the Turkish-Afghan Mining Company won rights to Badakhshan’s gold deposit.(20191201)

Background:
The Shaida copper mine is one of the biggest mines and located between Adraskan and Guzargah district of western Herat province. It  has been classified as a highly prospective copper porphyry deposit. Originally explored by Russian geologists in the early 1970s, the property has been explored more recently by the Afghanistan Geological Survery and the US Geological Survey. Shaida was selected as the most prospective copper porphyry deposit and one of the four most prospective gold or base metal deposits in Afghanistan for the government’s mineral tender process.

At a regional level, Afghanistan sits on the Tethyan Magmatic Arc, which spans from Eastern Europe through into Southeast Asia. World class copper porphyry deposits in this arc include Grasberg in Indonesia, Ok Tedi in Papua New Guinea on the eastern end, with Bor in Serbia and Rosia Poieni in Romania on the western end. The Central Tethyan region, which includes the underdeveloped Afghanistan portion, is home to world class copper deposits SarCheshmeh in Iran, and Reko Diq in Pakistan. Silk Road had previously been awarded the right to enter into a mining contract for Shaida through a competitive tender process initiated by the Ministry several years ago, which was supported by a range of international donor organizations.
 

China have secretly formulated a plan to get all mineral resources of Afghanistan. The last step of chinese business aim is to sign a $4 billion agreement with local authorities for Shaida Copper Mine, located in the western region of Afghanistan in the Adraskan District of the Herat province. Afghan people and even Parliament were kept in the dark about this agreement. According to reliable sources a chinese company, Metallurgical Corps of China, that already has the rights to the Mes Aynak copper deposit in Logar, has links with Afghan warlords and is illegally mining in Afghanistan.

This company invests in restive countries and the minerals are illegally transferred to China.

After reports about singing of the agreement have become public, afghan people asked that the chinese company engaged in illegal mining project stop their operations for Shaida Copper Mine, as the Afghan Government has failed to protect public wealth.

Metallurgical Corps of China has run into complications in Afghanistan after the executive leading the $3 billion project to build a open-pit copper mine in Mes Aynak was expelled from the Chinese Communist Party for corruption.