Dara-i-Suf coalmines’ revenue hits 2.3b Afghanis

The revenue from two coalmines in Dara-i-Suf district of northern Samangan province reached 2.3 billion Afghanis during the past nine months of the ongoing year, showing a 439 million Afghanis increase compared to the corresponding period last year, an official said Sunday.
Mohammad Saddiqui Azizi, the governor’s spokesman, told Pajhwok Afghan News the 2.3b Afs revenue came from Shabashak and Dehana coalmines of the district which was extracted by local people.
He said three more coalmines namely Garmak west, Garmak east and Reshk had been leased to a private firm and their revenues were not included in the 2.3 billion million from the two coalmines.
He did not provide further details about the three coalmines, but added one ton of coal extracted by local people was taxed 1500 Afghanis and the same quantity of coal extracted by government workers was sold against 2000 Afghanis.
Meanwhile, Ahmad Ali Hassani, Dara-i-Suf district administrative chief, said illegal extraction, mining by local residents and lack of full control over the extraction process had negative impact on the income.
According to him, about 12,000 residents of different provinces are currently working on more than 1,000 extraction tunnels of the two coalmines.
Coal extracted from these is transferred from the district to Balkh, Baghlan, Kabul, Kunduz, Khost, Nangarhar and Jawzjan province as well as Pakistan.
Experts from the former Soviet Union and Germany had estimated more than 150 million tons of coal in these mines.
According to officials, big coalmines are located in different parts of the Hindu Kushmountain range, which runs from Badakhshan province and extends to Takhar, Baghlan, Samangan, Bamyan and Sar-i-Pul and leads to Herat’s Sabzak Mine.