ABSTRACT

Afghanistan is a landlocked Muslim country of 17 million people surrounded by the Soviet Union, China, Pakistan, and Iran. Afghanistan is world-famous for lapis lazuli, but other minerals are of little consequence by world standards. Natural gas is Afghanistan’s principal mineral export. Refined petroleum is Afghanistan’s leading mineral import, and almost all of this comes from the Soviet Union. In 1975, Afghanistan’s imports of petroleum products amounted to about 285,000 tons. In 1975, a law was passed creating the Afghanistan National Oil Company, whose responsibilities include the completion and implementation of a national petroleum law and the negotiation of oil and gas exploration and production rights with foreign firms. Afghanistan has little mining and industry. Most of Afghanistan’s petroleum requirements are met by the Soviet Union. The most important recent addition to Afghanistan’s mineral inventory is the Hajigak iron ore deposits, situated in the Hindu Kush mountains northwest of Kabul.