Afghanistan’s Ministry of Mines is seeking the assistance of mining experts from universities in Western Australia in an effort to build a corps of trained Afghan geologists. Afghanistan’s rough terrain hides massive mineral wealth; a shortage of qualified professionals in the mineral sciences and applied fields is only one of the hurdles to resource development there, and it may be the easiest to overcome.
A report on NPR’s “Weekend Edition” looked at some of the other challenges facing the Ministry of Mines and potential investors, foremost among them the lack of a sufficient legal and regulatory infrastructure.