Doubt Cast on Afghan Mining

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Wall Street Journal, 3 October 2012

According to this report, ‘researchers working for the U.S. military have concluded [in a draft report] that it could cost more than $54 billion to build and run a railway network across Afghanistan, a price [that] could make some large-scale mining economically unviable’. ‘Because of the daunting terrain between Bamiyan and Kabul, it would cost nearly $7.5 billion [alone] to build one 600-mile section of rail […]. The report concluded that there appeared to be no good rail route to transport iron ore out of Bamiyan […]. Neither the segments between Kunduz to Bamiyan or Bamiyan to Kabul showed grade profiles conducive to heavy-haul iron ore traffic,