In pictures: Afghanistan's mines
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Dangerous conditions
Afghanistan's coal miners endure some of the most dangerous and primitive conditions in the world.
Accidents are common in the country's 11 coal mines, which have been starved of equipment by three decades of war.
Tom Coughlan reports.
Pictures by Veronique de Viguerie -
Baghlan mines
Karkar, founded in 1939, is one of four in the mountains of Baghlan province. The mines produce 120 tons a day between them.
The tunnels extend for four kilometres into the mountains at depths of 750 metres, pursuing 12 seams of coal. The geological pressures are massive and there is a regular sound of cracking wood as pine supports slowly splinter. -
Decaying equipment
Around the pit head a mass of broken mining equipment decays. It was provided decades ago by a Czech company.
During the civil war there was fighting between rival factions for control of the mine. The miners worked on below as the bullets flew above ground. -
Investment
This month a draft constitution on mining will be ratified by the Supreme Court. It will open up the country's 300 established mines to investment from the private sector.
A recent US survey revealed many previously unknown mineral reserves. -
Gas poisoning
Accidents are common. Here a man is carried from the mine with carbon monoxide poisoning after trying to extinguish a fire in one of the galleries.
He was injected with vitamin C and glucose, the only treatment the miners had available. -
Accidents
This year miners said that there had been 10 or 12 separate accidents. In most cases miners were hit by falling material at the coal face. None lost their lives.
Last year the steel cable on which the dolly is winched down into the mine snapped. Two miners died. -
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