Fortescue Metals Group has held talks with Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani on potential mining sector opportunities in the nation, which has struggled to accelerate development of an estimated $1-trillion worth of minerals deposits.
Ghani and the company’s chairman Andrew Forrest held an August 6 video conference over potential investment in iron ore and copper resources, and the billionaire miner is scheduled to visit Kabul in October for further talks, according to Qadeer Khan Mutfi, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s Ministry of Mines and Petroleum.
The fourth-biggest iron ore exporter, “showed interest in our mining sector, saying Afghanistan is rich in having natural resources,” Mutfi said. “Companies like this definitely have financial abilities and the capacity to develop the country’s mining sector.”