The Indian consortium, that won the bid to mine iron ore reserves in Hajigak near Kabul in Afghanistan over one year ago, would meet officials of mining ministry in the country in a month’s time.
Although the consortium bagged the mining asset over a year ago, it has not signed a mining contract with the Afghan government because of contentious issues.
The Afghan government and the consortium met several times to fix terms of the legal contract for mining the three iron ore blocks in Hajigak with an estimated reserve of 1.28 billion tonne of high grade iron ore.
The Indian consortium is led by Steel Authority of India (SAIL) and other members are NMDC, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam, JSW Steel, Jindal Steel and Power, JSW Ispat Steel and Monet Ispat and Energy.
According to officials from SAIL, except for one or two minor issues, rest of the terms in the contract are frozen.
The main point of contention in the talks was a clause imposed by the Afghanistan government under which SAIL would have to start exploration within six months or face termination of the contract. The second point of contention is who will build a 900 km rail link from Hajigak to the Bandar Abbas port in Iran.
The termination clause also says the consortium has to maintain a consistent level of production, not subject to seasonal slowdown, reports indicate. Also, it places limits on iron ore exports.
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