A cable made public last week reveals that China's development of the Aynak copper mining project, a multi-billion dollar project that U.S. officials had hoped would be won by a U.S. or Canadian firm, will begin by the end of this year and that full production would begin in 2013. The cable dated Oct. 21, 2009 and labeled "confidential," is from the U.S. Embassy in Beijing and quotes officials of the China Metallurgical Group Corporation, which won the contract through bribes to Afghan officials.

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