GOSHTA (AFP) – 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 capitalize 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 U.S. 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.
The US Geological Survey (USGS) has noted the production of coal, talc and chromite, “sharply increased” in 2021 and 2022.
The authorities are prioritizing resources that could lose value before tackling others, such as lithium, the prices of which may still rise on global markets.
The mines ministry regularly publishes tenders for exploration and extraction projects, sending their embassies lists of available mining projects to invite foreign companies to apply, according to documents reviewed by AFP.
The World Bank says the results are already visible: a 6.9 percent expansion of mining and quarrying drove an industrial sector increase of 2.6 percent in 2023-2024.
But while the government “has auctioned several small mining contracts to meet its cash requirements, many of these contracts have yet to commence operations”, it said in a December report.
For mining sector expert Javed Noorani, authorities are tendering “maybe 10 times more than its own capacity to do things”.
The Taliban fought a two decade insurgency against the U.S. and NATO-backed Afghan government in Kabul, seizing power in a rapid military campaign in 2021 after foreign forces withdrew.
Foreign investors had largely abandoned the country, but security has drastically improved and the country’s road network has opened up.