Abdul Qayyum Mushtaq Farooqi
Kapisa is a mountainous province located on the eastern latitude of 69 degrees and 21 minutes and northern longitude of 35 degrees. The province has a total 121 square kilometres area and situated 1,500 meters above the sea level.
Kapisa is among the central provinces of the country bordering Panjsher in the north, Parwan in the west, Kabul in the south and Laghman in the east. The province is located 65 kilometres north of capital Kabul.
According to the provincial mining department, Kapisa has large scale natural resources of precious stones, decoration stones, zing, iron, chromites, tourmaline, quartz, granite, jasper, luminous stones, construction stones and others.
Mahmood Raqi:
According to officials, natural reservoirs of stones being used in construction stones such as marble are situated in the Sang Burida locality and Oraki locality of Mahmood Raqi, the provincial capital.
The mines department said excavation work of these mines would formally start in the near future. In addition, the mines of plumbum were also discovered by the investigating team, but reports have been circulating regarding its illegal excavation.
Nijrab District:
The Nijrab district is situated 35 kilometres to the southwest of Mahmood Raqi City. The Afghania valley of this district has natural resources of luminous stones.
The excavation contract of the mine has been signed with the Hamraz Company. The company will extract 431 tons of luminous stones in the coming three years.
The government will earn 32 million afs in three years. As per the contract, the company is bound to pay 750 afs to the government in taxes on one tone excavation of luminous stones.
The natural reservoirs of jasper have been discovered in the Pachaghan valley of Nijrab district, but due to the deteriorated security situation further progress could not be made to excavate the mine.
Hesa-i-Awal and Hesa-i-Dowam districts of Kohistan:
Mines of building stones are available in Hesa-i-Awal and Hesa-i-Dowam districts of Kohistan. A year-long contract is inked between the mining department and Hewadwal Construction Company.
Under the contract, the company excavates 70,000 cubic metres construction materials from Khum Zargar Mountain in Hesa-i-Awal district and pays taxes to government. So far, the company has paid 161,000 afghanis tax to government.
Tagab and Alasai Districts:
According to Kapisa mining department, mines of construction and precious stones have been identified in both Tagab and Alasai districts. The stones include garnet, emerald and tourmaline.
Findings show these stones contain high quality, but the facility is illegally excavated due to absence of proper security arrangements. Employees of the mining department would not be able to work on the mine until security is provided there.
Additionally, signs of existence of tourmaline and other precious stones noticed in Kohband district, but exploration activities are yet to be carried out there as insecurity persists in the area.
