Australia’s iron ore giant to invest on Afghanistan energy sector

KABUL: An Australian metal company has shown interest in investing producing thousands of megawatts of electricity in Afghanistan.

The Fortescue Metals Group, signed a contract with the government of Afghanistan on Friday. It will produce 20,000 megawatts of electricity.

President Ashraf Ghani said in a gathering of military cadets on Thursday that he had signed the contracts of several important economic projects with Andrew Forrest, Fortescue director.

“Your government will host an Australian billionaire. A number of contracts have been signed that will basically change the fate of our country as the company will produce 20,000 megawatts of electricity and will extract mines,” said Ghani. He called it an example of government and private sector cooperation and is unique.

“If national and international companies produce electricity, the Breshna companies will supply the electricity in a suitable price to people,” said Wahid Tawhidi, spokesman of the electricity company called Breshna.

The Fortescue is the fourth largest iron ore producer in the world after the BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Vale.

Afghanistan’s mines worth three trillion dollars, according to the US geology survey department.