KABUL (Pajhwok): A mining company has won excavation contract of a portion of a talc mine in eastern Nangarhar province after revocation of earlier small contracts but the fresh contractor could not start its operation in three years until the process was called off, Pajhwok Afghan News learned reliably.
The company, the contract of which was revoked for a second time and its three years wasted, claims that some beneficiaries disrupted the process but the Ministry of Mining and Petroleum (MoMP) argues the bidding process was announced canceled because transparency had not been ensured based on technical and legal problems.
According to a copy of documents from the High Economic Council (HEC) available with Pajhwok Afghan News the MoMP had inked 20 small contracts of talc in the past years but these contracts were canceled back in 2019 as the contracting companies did not meet its pledges of construction of standard processing factories in the mining site despite one year extension period.
A decision regarding the cancellation of these contracts reads: “According to reports, most of the existing companies did not build the processing plant and the limited number of those who have processing plants are below standard and used primary equipment and their contracts are also near completion thus on the basis of above reasons and not meeting the pledges, their contracts will not be renewed and all contracts will be revoked. The mining sites will be offered to fresh contractors to ensure standard mining and establishing standard plants.”
Bidding of talc mine
AbidullahAzizi, former head of CorDrillers Company, said the mining ministry suddenly decided to invite bids for talc sites in Achin and Sherzad districts of Nangarhar in 2019.
The MoMP announced the bidding at a time when in 2018 a meeting of HEC under the chairmanship of President Ghani had decided that: “The Ministry of Mines and Petroleum is obliged to start its negotiations with Cordrilles regarding issuance of exploration and extraction licenses, considering its investment and duration of the contract.”
According to the source, of the total 32 interested companies, five were identified for Sherzad Block and three for Achin Block.
Azizi said among eligible companies Cordrillers was picked as winner for Sherzad Block after the evaluation of its financial and technical proposals the company had shared with the ministry.
But when the evaluation result was presented to the HCE, the body made the following decision: “The MoPM is bound to equally divide the Sherzad Talc Block into three parts to ensure there is no monopolization. The first block should be awarded to the superior winner, the second to reserve winner and third should be awarded to the third bidder.”
Azizi said the Cordrillers in its proposal offered to invest $17.8 million and the above decision was termed by the then acting minister of petroleum and the ministry’s technical secretary as against the law.
None-implementation of the decision
Azizi said the HEC did not consider the complaint of MoMP and ignored written complaint by the company to the secretariat of HEC. In addition the company wrote to the president which also went unnoticed. The HEC in its decision on December 17, 2019 stressed over its previous decision and the MoMP through an official letter informed the Cordrillers Company about the HEC final decision. The decision was about awarding one block out of three in Sherzad Talc site to the Cordrillers.
The company agreed to the decision but after one year of the decision the contract was not inked with the Cordrillers.
He said that Core Drillers Company had invested $4.84 million in building a factory for processing and packaging of talc in ShiekhMesri Industrial Park of Nangarhar province in 2017.
The company previously was purchasing the talc stone from small contractors and then it was exporting it to India, Japan, South Korea, Germany, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Jordan and Iraq after processing it, he said.
Cancellation of contracts for a second time
High Economic Council chaired by President Ashraf Ghani on May 5 decided that talc contracts in Nangarhar would be cancelled and would be announced again for bidding based on categories after approval from the Cabinet.
In response to the president’s decision, Arabzai said that he also suggested the High Economic Council to categorize talc mine into several small and big blocks and then announce it again for bidding as there was no rules of stable development and standard extraction of mine were considered in the previous contract.
To a question when talc mine is re-announced on a small scale, then why the previous contracts of small scale were cancelled, he said, “Mohammad HaroonChakhansori, the mines minister and a number of other figures who seek personal interests or have no technical information about the mining sector, want to disrupt the bidding process and formalization of talc and extract the mine using substandard operations and sell it on low price.”
He said that the performed processes showed that the president and members of High Economic Council had not been provided with adequate information by the mines minister and the council took a decision in violation to rules and laws.
The process done and initiated by government officials took years and millions of US dollars invested by Core Drillers Company remained unused and its factories were now at the brink of destruction but no organs is accountable in this regard, Arabzai said.
However, Aziz Gharwal, spokesman of the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum said that previous contracts of talc in Nangarhar were cancelled due to legal and technical problems as well as lack of transparency. He did not provide information about other claims of Core Drillers Company.
Complaints of small-size companies
Owners of companies whose contracts have been canceled complain about the matter. A copy of a document from High Economic Council shows that the protesting companies claim they had extracted 600,000 tons of talc and they asked for permission to transfer it but their contracts were cancelled.
The High Economic Council on January 18 directed the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum to determine the exact volume of the extracted talc before the companies have the permission to transfer it.
An official of the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum, who wished to go unnamed, said that the ministry’s team had analyzed the volume of the talc using an improper method and later the companies were allowed to transfer the stones.
This comes as the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum stopped the extraction and processing of talc stones in Nangarhar and cancelled the mining contracts for what it said to bring reforms in the area. However, the ministry again allowed transfer of talc stones which had been illegally extracted.
The official said illegal mining of talc in Nangarhar was still ongoing and a number of companies and figures wanted to disrupt the process.
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