Cash-keen Taliban betting on Afghanistan’s mines – by AFP/RSS (Republica.com – February 2, 2025

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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.

GOSHTA, Feb 2: 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.

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