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Resources
Mineral resources
Extensive surveys have revealed the existence of a number of minerals
of economic importance. The most important discovery has been that
of natural gas, with large reserves near Sheberghan in Jowzjan
province, near the Turkmen border, about 75 miles west of Mazar-e
Sharif. The Khvajeh Gugerdak and Yatim Taq fields are
major producers, with storage and refining facilities. Pipelines deliver
natural gas to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan and to a thermal power plant
and chemical fertilizer plant in Mazar-e Sharif.
Petroleum resources have proved to be insignificant. Many coal
deposits have been found in the northern slopes of the Hindu Kush.
Major coal fields are at Karkar and Eshposhteh, in Baghlan
province, and Fort Sarkari, in Balkh province.
High-grade iron ore, with an iron content of 62-63 percent, has
been discovered at Hajigak, 60 miles northwest of Kabul. Copper
is mined at 'Aynak, near Kabul, and uranium is extracted in the
mountains near Khvajeh Rawash, east of Kabul. There are also deposits
of copper, lead, and zinc near Konduz; beryllium in Khas Konar;
chrome ore in the Lowgar valley near Herat; and the semiprecious
stone lapis lazuli in Badakhshan. Afghanistan also has deposits
of rock salt, beryl, barite, fluorspar, bauxite, lithium, tantalum,
gold, silver, asbestos, mica, and sulfur.
Biological resources
Afghanistan is essentially a pastoral country. Only 12 percent
of the total land area is arable, and only about half of the arable
acreage is cultivated annually. Much of the arable area consists
of fallow cultivable land or steppes and mountains that serve as
pastureland. In addition, a large area is desert.
Forests cover about 3 percent of the total land area; they are
found mainly in the eastern part of the country and on the southern
slopes of the Hindu Kush. Those in the east consist mainly of conifers,
providing timber for the building industry as well as some wild
nuts for export. Other trees, especially oaks, are used as fuel.
North of the Hindu Kush are pistachio trees, the nuts of which are
exported.
Power resources
Afghanistan is potentially rich in hydroelectric resources. However,
the seasonal flow of the country's many streams and waterfalls--torrential
in spring, when the snow melts in the mountains, but negligible
in summer--necessitates the costly construction of dams and reservoirs
in remote areas. The nation's negligible demand for electricity
renders such projects unprofitable except near large cities or industrial
canters. The potential of hydroelectricity has been tapped substantially
only in the Kabul-Jalalabad region. |
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