Money from Afghanistan’s ‘conflict jewels’ fuels war – activists – by Josh Smith and Mirwais Harooni (Reuters U.K. – June 7, 2016)

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KABUL – The illegal mining of some of Afghanistan’s most important minerals is funnelling millions of dollars into the hands of insurgents and corrupt warlords, according to activists and officials who say the money is fuelling the conflict.

The mountains of Afghanistan hold as much as $1 trillion (£693.58 billion) to $3 trillion in mineral resources, according to estimates by the U.S. and Afghan governments, including world-famous lapis lazuli, a deep blue, semi-precious stone that has been mined in northern Afghanistan’s Badakhshan province for thousands of years.

“In the current circumstances, where 50 percent of the mining revenue is going to the Taliban, and before that it was going to armed groups, by any reasonable definition lapis is a conflict mineral,” said Stephen Carter, a researcher for Global Witness, a non-profit watchdog that investigates the links between natural resources, corruption and conflict.

“And that means people should think very hard about buying it,” he said. Since 2014, at least 12,500 tonnes of lapis worth about $200 million have been extracted, much of it illegally or in a way that avoided nearly $30 million in government taxes, according to a report released on Monday by Global Witness.

Global Witness says not only are the Taliban continuing to profit from the illegal mining of lapis and other jewels in Badakhshan, but that senior players in the Afghan government may have direct involvement.

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