An ancient Buddhist metropolis carved out of substantial peaks near Kabul is in chance of disappearing forever, swallowed up via a Chinese consortium exploiting one of the world’s greatest copper deposits.
Located at the confluence of Hellenistic and Indian cultures, Mes Aynak — believed to be between 1,000 and 2,000 years historical — was once a large town organised around the extraction and trade of copper.
Afghanistan is sitting on big mineral resources of copper, iron, bauxite, lithium and rare earths estimated to be worth extra than a trillion dollars.
The Taliban hope to earn more than $300 million a year from Mes Aynak — about 60 percentage of the full state budget for 2022 — and now choose to gear up the process.
