The Steel Authority of India Ltd-led Afghan Iron and Steel Consortium (AFISCO) will soon re-commence negotiations with the Afghanistan Government to set up a plant with a capacity of 1.5 million tonnes per annum.

“The new mining law has been approved by Parliament nearly two months ago. As per our Constitution, it needs to be signed by the President. This will be done in a month or so,” said Jamil Hares, Afghanistan’s Deputy Minister for Mines and Petroleum, on the sidelines of an industry event here.

The final agreement for the project, which entails an investment of $1.14 billion, can take place after the law is passed, he said, adding that the negotiations would have to reach a conclusion that is “win-win” for both AFISCO and the Afghan Government.

SAIL said that once the law is cleared, it will re-start negotiations.

AFISCO is a consortium of public and private sector companies from India.

Nearly 56 per cent of the stake in the venture is held by SAIL, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd and NMDC, while the rest is held by JSW Steel, Jindal Steel and Power Ltd and Monnet Ispat & Energy.

In November 2011, AFISCO had won three blocks with reserves of an estimated 1.28 billion tonnes of high grade iron ore, in the Hajigak mine.

AFISCO had initially planned to invest $10.8 billion to set up a 6.2-million-tonne-per-annum steel plant along with an 800 MW plant, besides allied infrastructure.