COPPER MINERAL RESOURCES IN AFGHANISTAN 2021 MOMP.GOV.AF Standard Disclaimer This is a technical document drawing on multiple data sources, all of which are open source. While any analysis is based on this data, both sins of commission or omission are the responsibility of the MoMP Public Relations Directorate. Should there be either typographic or data errors in the report, kindly communicate these in writing to [email protected] and a revised version will be posted online. Copyright Statement All queries on rights and licenses, including subsidiary rights, should be addressed to the Public Relations Directorate, Ministry of Mines and Petroleum, Abdulhaq Square, Kabul, Afghanistan. Compiled by Hussaindad Shafai Abdullah Asifi Qasim Akbar Designed by Rohola Rezaei © 2021 Ministry of Mines and Petroleum, Islamic Republic of Afghanistan All rights reserved COPPER Introduction Recent geological fieldwork by the Himalayan orogeny. During this Copper is an essential commodity Afghanistan Geological Survey oblique collision, NW directed in today’s digital and electronic aided by international advisors subduction occurred beneath the age and in recent years has seen a has improved the knowledge of Tirin-Argandab zone and calc- dramatic increase in its value. these deposits and made the alkaline granite bodies were Increased demand from the information available to the global intruded, accompanied by rapidly growing developing mining industry. porphyry copper mineralization. economies of Asia has led to a rise The exotic terrane of the Kabul in mineral exploration and the Geology of Afghanistan Block brought with it sedimentary opening of new mines in adjacent Afghanistan has a complex copper deposits like Aynak. regions. Afghanistan is well placed geology due to junction position to meet this demand and the between the Indo-Australasian Copper Deposits Aynak copper deposit, one of the and Eurasian plates. Its geology is There are around 300 documented largest in Asia, is currently being composed of a series of small copper deposits, occurrences and developed by a Chinese company. terranes that broke away from the showings in Afghanistan (Abdullah The country has a wealth of other main Gondwana supercontinent and Chmyriov, 2008). A variety of copper prospects, most notably a before colliding, with each other styles of copper mineralization number of porphyry copper or, with the Eurasian plate. occur in rocks ranging in age from deposits along part of the Tethyan Ultimately, all terranes accreted Proterozoic to Neogene. These Metallogenic Belt (TMB) and a onto the southern margin of the include sediment-hosted, skarn, recently discovered volcanogenic Eurasian plate. The final closure porphyry, and vein-hosted. The massive sulphide deposit (VMS) at of the Neo-Tethys ocean between largest and best-known copper Balkhab. the Indo-Australasian and discovery in Afghanistan is the Eurasian plates produced the world-class Aynak stratabound 60°0'0"E 63°0'0"E 66°0'0"E 69°0'0"E 72°0'0"E 75°0'0"E deposit hosted within Vendian- " "" " Cambrian quartz-biotite-dolomite " Balkhab " metasedimentary rocks 30km . " BADAKHSHAN " southeast of Kabul. Soviet surveys " KUNDUZ JAWZJAN TAKHAR BALKH N in the 1970s and 1980s outlined " 0 ' N " Ahankashan 0 ° 0 ' 6 an indicated resource of 240Mt 0 3 ° FARYAB " 6 SAMANGAN 3 " BAG"H"LAN " grading 2.3% Cu. However, SARI PUL " "" " " " " " "" PARWAN NURISTAN BADGHIS " Afghanistan has yet to be evaluated KAPISA KUNAR LAGHMAN BAMYAN " Legend in the light of modern mineral " Shaida """K""A"B"U"L """""" "" WARDAK """"""" NANGARHAR " "" " HIRAT " " Provinces deposit models and improved LOGAR GHOR """ " " "" "" " "" " Faults N analytical methods. From a " " PAKTYA Aynak 0 N " ' " " URUZGAN KHOST " 0 0 GHAZNI " Fault, normal, buried ° ' " " " 3 0 "" global perspective, Afghanistan is 3 ° " "" " " 3 " """ "" Porphyry Copper Deposits 3 " " " " " " " " " "" " "" "" relatively under explored and the "" " Prospective FA"RAH PAKTIKA " """ " ""ZABUL Favorable potential for further discoveries of "" " " Permissive copper and other minerals is high. Copper Mineral Occurance " Zarkashan HILMAND "" " Cu A ranking of significant known KANDAHAR " NIMROZ N deposits and prospects is given Kundalyan " N 0 ' " " 0 0 ° ' 0 0 ° below. " 3 0 3 KM 0 65 130 260 390 520 60°0'0"E 63°0'0"E 66°0'0"E 69°0'0"E 72°0'0"E 75°0'0"E 3 Copper Ranking of Known Cu Deposits DEPOSIT PROFILE 1 1. Aynak Deposit Name Aynak 2. Zarkashan Status Tendered 3. Kundalyan Location 4. Balkhab Logar Province 5. Shaida Deposit Style Stratiform Cu, metasediment-hosted 6. North Aynak Host geology Vendian–Cambrian metamorphosed limestones and volcanics 7. Ahankashan Ore minerals Bornite, chalcopyrite, chalcocite, native Cu, malachite, covellite, tenorite 8. Darrah-i-Alansang Deposit geology Deposit divided into Central and Western areas. Mineralisation traced for 2km, up to 1km wide and 9. Gologha 60-210m thick to max depth of 1000m Metal content Drill-indicated reserves >240Mt @ 2.3% Cu Sediment-Hosted Stratiform Copper Deposits AYNAK Sediment-hosted stratiform copper (SHSC) deposits are a large and diverse group that includes some of the richest and largest copper deposits in the world. The largest and best-known copper deposit in Afghanistan is the SHSC type Aynak deposit located in the Kabul Block 30 km southeast of Kabul (Deposit Profile 1). The deposit is of Vendian- Lower Cambrian age and is divided into two areas, Central Aynak and Western Aynak. Mineralization is characterized by stratabound disseminated bornite and chalcopyrite in dolomite marble and quartz-biotite dolomite schists of the Loy Khwar Formation. The deposit is thought to have formed by circulating hypersaline solutions leaching metals from underlying volcanic rocks (BGS, 2005). The Aynak Copper Deposit is a well-explored resource, defined by extensive geological data and preliminary feasibility study work prepared by the Russian authorities and later on by MCC. The deposit has known to be truly "world class," being regarded as the second-largest known, unmined deposit in the world and Figure 2. Geological sketch map and sections of the Aynak copper deposit. The deposit is hosted of exceptionally high grade. by the Loy Khwar formation shown in blue (BGS 2005). 4 Copper Figure 3. North Aynak Landsat TM enhanced color image. TM NORTH AYNAK 7.2m) mineralized zone within bands 1-4-7 are shown in blue-green-red. Yellow outline is the Loy steeply dipping, albitized marble Khwar Formation that hosts copper deposits. Spectral analyses of Recent geological containing disseminated bornite, ASTER and HyMap images, shows that the distinctive tan-colored mapping of the chalcopyrite, chalcocite and minor outcrops within the Loy Khwar Formation are dolomite members, North Aynak area malachite. Limited exploration which host the Aynak copper deposit further south. (Bohannon, 2010) conducted at this site included and interpretation 1:2,000-scale geological mapping, of high quality trenching, and geochemical remote sensed data sampling, and resulted in the (Peters et al., 2011 and calculation of a potential resource Department of Defense, containing 42,100 tonnes of 2011) have improved copper at an average grade of the potential of 1.04% Cu (Kutkin and Gusev, 1977). this area and the latter estimate that more than half of Volcanogenic Massive Sulphide the copper deposit could lie outside of BALKHAB the MCC area. One example of a known This poorly described occurrence occurrence in North has been reinvestigated by Aynak is described AGS and mapped using remote below. The Katasang sensing data (Peters et al., 2011). occurrence is an The Balkhab copper volcanogenic 800m long, 3.6 to massive sulfide (VMS) prospect 13.8m thick (average lies within the Balkhab copper The resource was measured at 240Mt @ 2.3% Cu. Recently the contractor MJAM exploration has doubled the stated resource from 5.5Mt to 11.1Mt-contained Cu. The Aynak Copper project was awarded in May 2008 to two Chinese state-owned companies, the China Metallurgical Group Corporation (MCC) and the Jiangxi Copper Company Limited. The consortium later called itself MCC-JCL Aynak Minerals (MJAM) to formally operate the project. As per the Aynak 2014 Feasibility report, mineral resource statement, resulting in the value of the deposit being doubled: • MJAM 662Mt @ 1.67% Cu containing 11.1Mt Cu • RUSSIAN STUDIES 240Mt @ 2.3% Cu containing 5.5Mt Cu Figure 4. Anomalous zones (1-7) determined from Landsat TM alteration patterns in the Balkhab copper area (Peters et al., 2011). 5 Copper DEPOSIT PROFILE 2 Deposit Name Balkhab Location Sari-i-Pul Province Deposit Style Volcanogenic Massive Sulphide Host geology Ordovician schist and phyllite with bimodal felsic volcanics Ore minerals Pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite, bornite, galena, malachite, azurite Deposit geology Copper mineralisation consists of a silicifi ed limonite-bearing zone 4 to 5m long by 300 to 400m wide Figure 5. Malachite- and azurite-coated Metal content Zone grades 0.25 to 1.34% Cu but no estimate of tonnage phyllite from Balkhab copper prospect (Peters et al., 2011). alteration zones from ASTER and granodiorite to adamellite aeromagnetic anomalies. Within intrusion and consists of a them two deposits, Zarkashan in number of gold and copper area of interest and is part of an the north and Kundalyan in the occurrences (Figures 6 and 7). eroded inlier of deformed pre- south, have been investigated by The mineralization consists of Triassic, mainly Ordovician rocks, detailed sampling, trenching and chalcopyrite, pyrite,