Forgotten for centuries before being discovered by chance by a French geologist in the early 1960s, Mes Aynak in the province of Logar has been compared to Pompeii or Machu Picchu for its scale and historical importance.

The ruins of the site, which covers 1000 hectares, are perched high on a massive summit whose brown sides betray the presence of copper, and on other surrounding ridges.

In 2007, the Chinese mining giant Metallurgical group corporation (MCC), at the head of a public consortium which then took the name MJAM, signed a three billion dollar contract to exploit the ore, over 30 years.

The fear of seeing the disappearance of a place once considered one of the most prosperous commercial crossroads on the Silk Road has sparked international mobilization.

MJAM had to authorize excavations and delay the opening of the mine.

Fifteen years later, it still does not exist.

Insecurity and disagreements between Beijing and Kabul over the financial terms of the contract have caused further delays.

But with the end of the war and the return to power in August of the Taliban, forced to find new sources of funding to compensate for the freeze in international aid, the project once again became a priority for both parties.

Despite the looting at the beginning of the century, Mes Aynak "is one of the most beautiful Buddhist sites" and "one of the most beautiful archaeological sites" in the world, testifies for AFP Bastien Varoutsikos, archaeologist for the French company Iconem who has been working for several years to digitize the place and its heritage.

Located at the confluence of Hellenistic and Indian cultures, Mes Aynak was a vast city organized around the extraction and trade of copper, an activity in which the Buddhist monks would have been involved.

The objects discovered mainly date from the 2nd to the 9th century AD, but an earlier occupation is also possible.

Pottery dating back to the Bronze Age, well before the birth of Buddhism, was also found on site.

'Duty' of preservation

Archaeologists have unearthed Buddhist monasteries, stupas, fortresses, administrative buildings and dwellings.

Hundreds of statues, frescoes, ceramics, coins and manuscripts have also been unearthed.

In the early 2010s, it was "one of the biggest archaeological projects in the world", underlines Mr. Varoutsikos.

MJAM had given three years to archaeologists, who focused on the area directly threatened by the mine, when several decades would have been needed to fully excavate the site.

A Taliban marches on May 17, 2022 near the ancient Buddhist city Mes Aynak in eastern Afghanistan Wakil KOHSAR AFP

Eventually, the time allotted stretched out, the security situation preventing the Chinese from building the planned infrastructure.

Thousands of objects have been unearthed.

Some were taken to the Kabul museum, others are kept nearby.

Under their previous regime, the Taliban shocked the whole world by dynamiting the giant Buddhas of Bamiyan in March 2001. But today, they say they are determined to preserve the discoveries of Mes Aynak, which have remained intact since August.

"It is the duty of the Ministry of Information and Culture to protect them," Esmatullah Burhan, spokesman for the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum, told AFP.

But, even if the discourse seems sincere, many of the remains are simply too bulky or fragile to be moved and seem doomed to disappear.

Archaeologists, who did not have time to excavate everything, will perhaps never know if the ground may not have concealed other treasures.

“There are things that are not really moveable”, some “which can continue to be moved” and others “which can be further explored”, observes Mr. Varoutsikos, acknowledging that “the strategy is not yet very clear".

The Chinese favor open-pit, rather than underground, mining.

The mountain of copper would thus be gutted and all the fragments of the past buried.

Environmental consequences

If this choice is confirmed, the only solution will then be "to continue the excavation as long and as exhaustively as possible" and "to move everything that can be moved" before the start of exploitation, underlines Mr. Varoutsikos.

But that will depend on "international collaboration" and "funding", he notes.

Afghanistan is based on immense mineral resources (copper, iron, bauxite, lithium, rare earths, etc.), estimated at more than 1,000 billion dollars.

The Taliban, who hope to draw more than 300 million dollars annually from Mes Aynak - when the state budget is 500 MUSD for 2022 - want to speed up the process.

"This project must begin, it must not be delayed any longer," they have repeated in recent weeks to MJAM, according to Mr. Burhan.

The "discussions are about 80% finished", indicates the spokesperson, only "technical points" remaining to be settled, which should be done soon.

Photo of a Buddha statue taken on May 17, 2022 in the thousand-year-old city of Mes Aynak in eastern Afghanistan Wakil KOHSAR AFP

The Taliban demand that the contract, which included the construction of a power plant supplying the mine and Kabul, and a railway line to Pakistan, be respected.

They also insist that the copper be transformed locally and that the workforce employed be Afghan.

China, whose economy has a big need for copper, is reluctant to meet these demands.

MJAM, which did not wish to respond to AFP, also continues to demand a reduction in the royalties due.

The project is coupled with concerns about its environmental consequences.

The extraction of copper is polluting and requires large quantities of water, but Logar is an already arid region.

According to Burhan, the Taliban are paying "strict attention" to these issues and will ensure that the consortium fulfills its obligations in this area.

Afghanistan is about to sacrifice part of its history.

But the economic stakes are such that the fate of Mes Aynak seems to have been sealed for a long time.

© 2022 AFP