From Radio Free Europe, news that Afghanistan has awarded China’s state-owned China Metallurgical Group with the right to develop a large copper field to the south of Kabul, following two years of bidding. According to the article, CMG agreed to invest billions of dollars in the project and related infrastructure development — including the construction of a coal-fired electrical power plant and what would be Afghanistan’s first freight railway.

“…By the estimates of some geologists, deposits at Afghanistan’s Aynak copper field in Logar Province make it the world’s largest undeveloped copper field…

…Afghan Mining Minister Ibrahim Adel says the Chinese company has agreed to invest nearly $3 billion in order to set up mining operations and overcome the lack of basic infrastructure.

“With this mining project at the Aynak copper field, we will have about $2.8 billion of direct investment,” Adel said. “About $500 million will be invested in building an electrical power plant. And a large amount of money also will be invested in building a railroad. This is one of the biggest foreign investment projects in the history of Afghanistan.”

Khozman Ulumi, a spokesman for the Afghan Mining Ministry, told RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan that preliminary plans call for a railroad link from Tajikistan to the copper field and on to Pakistan….”