 "Afghan officials")
From a distance, it is possible to imagine the muffled explosions that sometimes echo across the brown hills of Mes Aynak are the sounds of Afghanistan’s future—engineers blasting their way into the world’s second-largest copper ore reserves, holding an estimated 5.5 million metric tonnes. The mine, and other similar ones, are due to bring Afghanistan $1 billion a year in revenues, and create over 35,000 jobs.
Like most dreams, this one is starting to give way to reality but of a different kind: the explosions are rockets, police guards stationed at the mine say, fired by villagers disgruntled by land
