TALOQAN (Pajhwok): Salt extracted from the Taqcha Khana mine in northern Takhar province is being sold to other provinces of the country, an official said on Wednesday.
Located northeast of the country, Takhar has 46 different mines, including the salt mine in Namak Aab district, creating work opportunities for more than 1,500 people.
In the past, people extracted salt from the Taqcha Khana mine in a non-professional way, but the mining process was legalised with the signing of a contract with a domestic company in 2005,
Director of Mines and Petroleum Eng. Fida Mohammad Tashi said the 10-year contract had been awarded to another competent company, which paid the government more than $5 per tonne.
Tashi told Pajhwok Afghan News though the exact amount in Taqcha Khana deposits remains undetermined, yet initial studies indicated there was 4,000 cubic metres of salt there.
More than 150 labourers were working in the mine, where up to 100 tonnes of salt were extracted on daily basis, he added. Presently, the salt is being sent to Badakhshan, Baghlan, Samangan, Balkh, Kabul and other provinces.
Having a better quality than Indian, Pakistani and Iranian products, one tonne of salt from the mine cost 640 afghanis, he said. The same amount of salt produced in the neighbouring countries was priced at $5 (250 afghanis).
In the past nine months, the Taqcha Khana mine fetched more than 7 million afghanis.
Bashir Ahmad, who owns a shop in Taloqan, urged people to give preference to the purchase of domestic products. He said legal and professionally mining and packing of salt would pave the way for its exports.
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