Officials at the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum say 13 large-scale mines have been signed in several provinces in the past year.

According to Amac news: Humayun Afghan, spokesman for the Ministry of Mines, said that 13 large-scale mines in Herat, Takhar, Ghor, Parwan, Kabul, Baghlan, Faryab and Nangarhar provinces have been signed with domestic and international companies in the past year. It has created job opportunities for thousands of people.
He added that 12 important projects are currently underway in Ghor, Badakhshan, Panjshir, Kandahar, Ghazni, Logar, Jawzjan, Kunduz and Faryab provinces and necessary measures are being taken to start a number of other important projects in Ghor, Badghis and Maidan Wardak provinces. , Herat, Parwan, Bamyan, Kapisa and Nangarhar.
He said 80 small-scale mining contracts had been signed with Afghan domestic investors and 10 small-scale mining contracts had been cancelled.
According to Afghan, the ministry currently has 167 small-scale mining contracts worth about 10 billion Afghanis active, providing direct and indirect job opportunities for thousands of people.
The ministry has issued 52 mineral processing licenses to Afghan and international companies in the past year, and illegal mining and smuggling of precious stones has been prevented in the past year, the ministry spokesman said.
The official of the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum of Afghanistan said that the process of extracting petroleum products from 21 fields in Qashqari, Angut and Agh Darya is currently underway, with 1,300 tons of crude oil being extracted daily from these fields.
Afghan said the contract for drilling wells No. 33 and 35 was signed with a Turkish company to develop gas resources in Yatim Taq area of ​​Jawzjan province.
According to the ministry spokesman, the contract for a 14-square-kilometer salt mine in Andkhoy district of Faryab province worth 24 million US dollars for 15 years and a rock salt mine in Takhar province worth about 500 million Afghanis have been signed with domestic companies.
Humayun Afghan added that in the past year, about 1,700 emerald mines have been surveyed and confirmed in Panjshir province, and about 78,000 carats of emerald worth about 5.5 million US dollars have been auctioned to domestic investors and investors. Sold out internationally.
He said that during this period, 575 licenses were issued for legal mining of Panjshir emerald, of which 15,000 people were provided with job opportunities.
According to the ministry official, the procedures for legal extraction of precious stones, hydrocarbons law and TAPI project acquisition law have been prepared and sent to the IA leadership for signature.
Officials from the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum said that in the past year, the ministry has signed eight cooperation agreements with domestic and foreign institutions in order to better regulate and advance affairs.
They added that mining surveys and creating conditions for attracting more investment, advertising and tendering for small and large-scale mines, finalizing legislative documents, creating conditions for the implementation of large national and infrastructure projects in Afghanistan and systems development are important priorities in the past year. is.