Cash-keen Taliban betting on Afghanistan’s mines

GOSHTA, Afghanistan: A miner in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan poured water over a block of jade, exposing the green stone that is part of the Taliban authorities´ push to capitalise on the country´s rich mineral resources.

Touting the return of security, the Taliban government is rushing to court local and foreign investors to exploit the country´s underground wealth and secure a crucial revenue stream -- though experts warn of the risks of cutting corners.

Emeralds, rubies, marble, gold and lithium: the resources buried across Afghanistan´s rocky landscape are estimated to be worth a trillion dollars, according to US and UN assessments from 2010 and 2013.

Though decades of war spared these reserves from large-scale exploitation, roughly 200 contracts -- the majority with local companies -- worth billions of dollars in total have been signed since the Taliban´s 2021 return to power, official figures show.

“We want Afghanistan to be self-sufficient but there are obstacles,” Humayoun Afghan, the spokesman for the Ministry of Mines, told AFP. “We have no experts, no infrastructure, no knowledge.” The Taliban authorities will “welcome anyone who wants to invest, especially those with mining experience”, he added.

Many of these contracts focus on mining exploration, a process that can take years and yield little results, while loosely regulated extraction can leave behind environmental scars, experts caution.