The Hajigak iron ore deposit is situated in the mountainous
Bamyan province, 130 km west of the Afghanistan capital, Kabul
(Figure 1). It is one of several iron deposits within this area but is
the largest located to date. The ore occurs within the Herat fault
zone as sub-concordant sheets and lenses within Proterozoic
metasedimentary and metavolcanic rocks. A study in the 1960s
demonstrated the mineral potential of the region, and estimated
the Hajigak resource as 1.8 billion tonnes of iron ore with a
concentration of approximately 62 % Fe (Table 1). This
assessment ranks the Hajigak deposit as world class. The presence
of coking coal nearby at Shabashak and the world-class ranking
of the iron ore resource combine to make the Hajigak deposit an
exceptionally favourable target for economic development