Kiwi in Kabul

Darryl Thorburn returned to the republic of Afghanistan this year for another ‘tour of duty’, despite the threat of Taliban miltants,  kidnappings and suicide bombings.   By Neil Ritchie

Former Crown Minerals manager, Darryl Thorburn carries a gun to work in case he runs into trouble. Afghanistan can be a dangerous place for foreign workers.

Home on holiday in New Zealand over the past summer he tells Energy NZ that you get so acustomed to ubiquitous presence of guns over there that it took a little to get used to the absence of firearms back home.

“You walk down any street in Kabul and there are likely to be young men carrying guns –  AK47s and the like.”

The Taliban is everywhere he says, when they are fighting they wear uniforms, but in the streets they look like any other civilians.

“You do not recognise them; they look just like the locals, in fact the locals often do not recognise them.”

He likens them to Kiwi rugby players. “There are a whole range of different groups, with different ethnicities and backgrounds, united by a common cause.

“With rugby teams, it’s the love of the game that unites, but with the Taliban it’s the hatred of the so-called infidels, any non-Muslims, whom they want to drive out of Afghanistan.”

There’s an increasing number of kidnappings or attempted kidnappings, often for extortionist ransoms, he adds, although expatriates are not usually targeted as that attracts too much media attention.

Thorburn, who returned for his second stint in in the war torn country working as a mining advisor for the Ministry of Mines shrugs off the risks. 

“In New Zealand, a number of people were killed on the roads over the Christmas-New Year holiday season, some of them through no fault of their own. They just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“So it is with Afghanistan ­– suicide bombings and kidnappings are just an unfortunate part of Afghani life.”

Minerals have also been a part of Thorburn’s life for many years – he was born and raised in the West Coast coal mining town of Greymouth and he has a BSc and an MSc, both in geology, from Canterbury University, Christchurch.

Earlier overseas experiences included working as an exploration-mining geologist in Northern Transvaal, South Africa and then on a central Queensland uranium project.

Back in New Zealand, he joined the Mines Department of the then Ministry of Energy, which later became the Crown Minerals unit within the Economic Development Ministry, now the Ministry of Energy and Resources.

However, after some 25 years working for the New Zealand Government, he decided it was time for a change so he negotiated a deal with the World Bank and the Afghani Ministry of Mines and left with wife Lee in August 2007. This time he has left his wife at home, though she may join him later in the year

“I did wonder why I was going back again, leaving a hot New Zealand summer for a cold Kabul winter. But Afghanis are neat folk and I want to help them return their country to what it was before the Soviet occupation of the late 1970s and the following civil war and drought, which devastated their country and destroyed the fabric of their society.”

The terms of his employment in Afghanistan are very generous, he says with all travel paid for and good living allowances. He’s also paid in American currency and earning more than he possibly could back home in New Zealand.

Monetary matters are not his prime motivation for returning.

“I started a very interesting and rewarding job and I want to complete it and see good minerals and petroleum regimes implemented that will bring benefits to the local Afghani people.”

The positives of living and working in Afghanistan outweigh the negatives – you just have to be very careful, very wary, he says.

“Afghanistan is a different and challenging country to live in. There are definitely risks, but those risks can certainly be contained.”

He and other expatriates rely on various security reports – usually from different Western agencies – to help them steer clear of potential trouble.

“We may get reports that indicate not to go out on a particular night or to avoid certain areas of the capital. Sometimes we decide to work from home rather than risk traveling into work. When the bomb blasts are nearby that’s more of a wake-up call than anything else.”

Security risks do not prevent Thorburn from socialising with the local folk and he says he has made a number of good friends among work colleagues and the local community.

“Sure, there are some who see us as infidels and want us out of Afghanistan, but the majority of people want us there to help them – they just want to work, feed their families and raise the next generation.”

When Thorburn and his family first arrived in Kabul they stayed in a very secure guest house.

“While it had excellent facilities such as 24/7 power, water and other great amenities, we found it limiting in terms of life in Afghanistan. We then shared a large house with other expats, and where in more control of our own destinies.” 

Infrastructure in Kabul is just hanging together and no more, he adds. The city of four million people gets only about four hours of electricity every three days or so.

“We run our own generator when we need power. Our place is fortunate in having our own water well, a deep well with excellent water – we are the lucky ones.”

Internet has reached Kabul and some other centres but is very slow and 2mb file may take 60 minutes to download. While there are several cellphone companies their services are, at best, just OK and fail frequently.

In his role, Thorburn is responsible for providing day-to-day advice to the Minister of Mines, and is putting in place a digital minerals cadastre system that brings together various paper record systems and capacity building programmes within the Afghanistan Geological Survey.

A specific role is ensuring the Aynak copper deposit, a very large resource capable of sustaining a 400,000 tonne per annum production of anode copper for maybe 100 years, results in an equitable sharing of benefits for Afghanistan.

Thorburn is responsible for finalising negotiations with the successful bidder for the Aynak copper resource, while other mineral resources, such as the Hajigak iron resource found back in the late 1970’s (literally a mountain of magnetite), are in the process of being readied for tendering this year.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) has recently compiled data from a recent airborne geophysical survey of Afghanistan that has produced a magnificent data set for reinterpreting the country’s geology, he says.

“Most national geological surveys around the world would walk on glass to be able to have a data set like this for their own country,” says Thorburn.

This data set and comprehensive report (that can be downloaded off the USGS website) is being currently being dissected and, already, a number of prospects identified which will be made available to promote Afghanistan’s mineral potential.

The USGS and Afghani Mines Ministry have undertaken a comprehensive assessment of the petroleum basins – Amu Darya and the Afghan Tajik Basins in the northern part of the country, which have potential for additional crude oil and natural gas discoveries.