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Seeking investments in a range of sectors, Afghanistan Industry and Commerce Minister Alhaj Nooruddin Azizi on Monday said his government is ready to offer five years of tax breaks to firms investing in new sectors, including gold mining. Speaking at an interactive session organised by business chamber Assocham, Azizi said tensions with Pakistan creating hurdles in trade. "There is a huge potential available in Afghanistan. Even you will not find a lot of competitors. You will also receive tariff support, and we will be able to give you land. The five-year tax exemption will be given to companies who may be interested to invest in new sectors," the minister said. Afghanistan will charge only 1 per cent tariff if Indian firms import machinery for investment, he said. "Gold mining will definitely require the technical and professional team or professional companies. So initially, we are requesting that you send your team, they can do the research, they can do the exploration initiall
South African police said on Wednesday they have ended a rescue operation at an abandoned gold mine where scores of illegal miners were trapped and believe they rescued all the survivors and retrieved all the bodies of those who died. The announcement was a surprise and came just a day after the police minister said the rescue operation would likely last until at least next week. Police said that 78 bodies had been recovered from the gold mine since the rescue operation began on Monday and more than 240 survivors had been rescued. Police made the announcement at a news conference at the mine. They said rescuers would do a final sweep of the mine on Thursday to ensure no more survivors or bodies were underground. Rescuers and volunteers have pulled at least 78 dead miners and more than 160 survivors from an abandoned South African gold mine, where they languished for months during a standoff with authorities who demanded they surrender to police because they were mining ...
The death toll from a massive landslide that hit a gold-mining village in the southern Philippines has risen to 54 with 63 people still missing, authorities said Sunday. The landslide hit the mountain village of Masara in Davao de Oro province on Tuesday night after weeks of torrential rains. Davao de Oro's provincial government said in a Facebook post that 54 bodies had been recovered. At least 32 residents survived with injuries but 63 remained missing, it said. Among those missing were gold miners who had been waiting in two buses to be driven home when the landslide struck and buried them. The search operation has been hampered by poor weather and fears of more landslides. More than 1,100 families have been moved to evacuation centres for their safety, disaster response officials said. The area has been swamped by heavy rains in the weeks before the landslide struck. Earthquakes also damaged houses and buildings in the region in recent months, officials said.
Amid the ongoing political and economic instability in Pakistan, cracks seemed to have appeared in the ruling coalition when two allied parties boycotted a Cabinet meeting over a controversial bill related to the revival of a key gold mining project in the restive Balochistan province. The revival of the Reko Diq copper and gold mine project in Balochistan with billions of dollars at stake was cleared by the Supreme Court last week. A Cabinet meeting presided over by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to discuss the project on Tuesday was boycotted by two coalition partners Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) and Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-Mengal), the Dawn newspaper reported on Wednesday. The annoyed parties were of the opinion that the Reko Diq related bill -- the Foreign Investment (Promotion and Protection) Bill, 2022 -- passed by the Senate on Monday was against the rights of the people of Balochistan and that JUI-F and BNP-Mengal had not been taken on board during the ...
: State-owned NMDC Limited has said it is taking the first step for obtaining a Mining License (ML) to start operations at a gold mine in Andhra Pradesh. NMDC takes the first step for obtaining Mining Lease & executing the ML deed to start the mining operations at Chigargunta-Bisanatham Gold Mine Block in Chittoor District, Andhra Pradesh, NMDC tweeted on Monday. NMDC's Chairman and Managing Director Sumit Deb in a tweet said the miner strikes gold with the Gold Mine block as it is a first of its kind for the company in terms of leveraging its expertise for a multi-mineral outlook and underground mining operations as well. NMDC sources said the firm is in the process of calling Expression of Interest for appointment of a Consultant for obtaining Mining Lease and Mining Deed. Once the appointment of a Consultant is done, then within six months mine plan and other details for the ML will be submitted to the authorities based on which ML will be granted. It may take about 12 months,